The Deception, gone awry
by defiasstone2
Summary: On the night of his graduation, Naruto's joy at becoming a ninja was tainted by the revelations revealed that night. Leaving the meeting with the Hokage, Naruto traveled through Konoha to think upon the truths heaped upon him. Whilst doing so, he overheard a conversation, and got an idea that would change the future of his ninja career. Slow buildup but gets better after Chaps 1 2.
1. The Idea

**The Deception, gone awry.**

_13 years ago, the elemental nations were rocked as the terrible tailed beast of legend, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, rampaged its way through the land of fire. Each of its nine tails could cause earthquakes and tsunami's upon impact with the ground, its chakra was so oppressive and evil that it scorched the ground black and trees and plants withered from its mere presence. Even though it towered above the trees and buildings of the country, the ninja of the village hidden in the leaves, referred to as the village of Konoha, sallied forth to defend their home that was in the path of the beasts path of destruction. Though they fought bravely with their powerful ninja techniques and the determination of one protecting their home, they could not prevent the beast from reaching sight of the walls of their villages and threatening the village itself. _

_Then the leader of the village, reputed to be the most dangerous shinobi of all time, the fourth Hokage, rode out upon the mightiest of his summoned animals, the toad boss Gamabunta, to face his greatest foe yet. and though he battled the fox for almost an hour, the tailed beasts were not threatened by mortal blows or elemental techniques so the beast could not be dissuaded, and the Hokage was forced to call upon the Shinigami to seal the beast, half of the beasts chakra into the stomach of the Shinigami, the other into a new-born child, Naruto Uzumaki. The sealing cost the fourth Hokage his life, his soul forced to remain in the Shinigami's stomach for all eternity. The village therefore survived, and rebuilt itself back to its position as the greatest of the shinobi villages. But underneath the surface of what was presented as a loving and kind village, the boy Naruto suffered at the hands of neglect and abuse, many of the villagers unable to see past the fox within him. Naruto tried to become a ninja, in the hope that his work would bring him the respect that he had been lacking in, but through a mixture of ill teaching and sabotage, he failed the final exam three times. After the third time, one of his teachers approached him, offering an alternative exam._

_Despite this turning out to be a fabrication by the hateful teacher who then tried to kill him, Naruto survived with the aid of his other teacher Iruka, and was given his headband, a sign of graduating as a ninja, by Iruka after defeating the rogue teacher. In addition he learnt about the burden that he carried, and learned a powerful clone technique, the Kage Bushin no justu. This story begins as he finishes his meeting with the third Hokage, who had looked after him from afar both personally and through the use of the villages ninja. What were to happen, if Naruto, whilst returning home from the meeting and needing something to distract him from his problems, encountered a pair of chuunin, and heard an idea..._

Naruto walked away from the Hokage tower, having been in a meeting with the third Hokage for almost a whole hour as the old man had explained things to him, uncomprehending of those of the night staff that threw hate filled glances at him, which were mostly the civilian members of the night staff, those that were ninja were far less hateful. His evening had been, well enlightening was one word for it. Having failed his graduation test for the third time in a row, thanks to the stupid bushin and paper tests, he had been sulking off to the side of the academy entrance, watching yearningly as the parents of the rest of his class had come to collect their children, congratulating those who had passed and consoling those that hadn't.

It was then that he was approached by one of his teachers, Mizuki, who had told him that there was an alternative test that he could try and complete now he had tried three times to pass the normal test. Mizuki had said that this test had been created to test the more practical parts of a ninjas aptitude, in the cases that they were not as good with the knowledge side of the academy. He had been ecstatic, and had agreed to take the test instantly, and had rushed home to prepare himself once Mizuki explained what the test consisted of. He had been surprised that it was still the usual ANBU patrols that were taking part in the exercises, but he had spent more than enough time around the area that their sensors would not detect his chakra as unusual, and slipping past them physically? He was Naruto Uzumaki datteybo, he was the sneaking expert extraordinaire, and the ANBU had not stood a chance at finding him, only Iruka had ever managed to catch him when he was pranking people, though he did suspect that not all of them were taking it as seriously as they had made out they were at the time.

Therefore, he had done as he had been asked by Mizuki and completed his 'alternative testing', by breaking into the Hokage tower and stealing a prepared scroll of jutsu's. The only minor hiccup in this plan had been the fact that the Hokage had been in his office working when Naruto had arrived, having snuck past the ANBU guards as he had done so many times before, though Naruto had used his original technique 'sexy no jutsu' which had distracted the old man enough for Naruto to knock him out. Grabbing the scroll he had left hurriedly, he would then have to learn one of the techniques written on the parchment before meeting Mizuki at the meeting point in the woods by training ground 15 before midnight; otherwise he was told he would have failed the test. This would have been fine, he had managed the infiltration in less than 2 hours, leaving him five in which he had learned the technique Kage bushin, or shadow clone jutsu, and then it was simply waiting for Mizuki to arrive, where upon he would have shown off his jutsu and got his headband, which would have been brilliant, if only the teme hadn't lied to him.

Instead of an easy pass as he had been promised, he had found himself forced to defend his other sensei, Iruka, from Mizuki, who turned out to hate him for containing the Kyuubi no Kitsune, one of the nine great demons of the elemental nations, commonly referred to as the Biju. He had only found out that he was the container when Mizuki had told him, full of rage, just before Naruto had unleashed his new technique and whopped his ass. Iruka had then given Naruto his own headband, telling him that he had gained the rank of genin through a field mission test rather than the academy testing, and that he was not and never would be the demon that Mizuki had claimed he was, he was its jailer, and it was him alone that was stopping the escaping and going on another rampage.

This reassurance was nice, but that didn't stop the dots slowly connecting in his head as he walked down one of the darker alleys towards his flat building. Being chucked out of the orphanage for being an unwelcome burden, none of the other kids wanting to play with him, saying their parents had told them he was a 'bad kid' and that they should avoid him if they knew what was good for them. The looks and treatment given by the academy teachers during his years there, the failure of two exams he knew he should have at least scraped passes on due to his ability on the obstacle course, the Taijutsu exams and the stealth testing.

As this self-revelation of why his life had always been such a struggle was occurring, he caught the sounds of movement from above him, and drawing on his years of pranking experience, leaped lightly and stealthily up onto the rooftops to see who it was, anything at this point to provide him with something else to think about other than tonight's truths. Looking up along the curve of the roof, he saw two chuunin settling at the plateaued point at the top, and jumped into a recess to avoid being seen by them, his curiosity sated as he didn't recognise them as anyone he knew, and he prepared to slip past them. However, as he moved through the shadows to get past them; he caught their conversation, and stopped to listen, after all, it was not like he had anything to get home to tonight.

It was the taller of the two who was speaking at that point, looking down at a scroll sadly. "I was certain that would work, she's a girl, and she must have liked the roses, right?" The shorter one reached over and patted his shoulder twice. "I really cannot understand why you keep trying so hard Izumo, after all, you've been chasing her for years now, and all she has done is ignore all you and put you down regardless of what you have come up with or tried." The now named Izumo shook his head disbelievingly at what the other Chuunin was saying. "Of course you wouldn't understand Kotetsu, you were in an arranged marriage by the time you were seven, one who never had to chase their dream girl wouldn't understand how much she is worth this effort and much more."

Naruto was now fully listening to the talking duo, and he couldn't help but compare Izumo's problem with his own problem with Sakura, the pretty and intelligent girl in his year in the academy, which he had chased after from almost day one, but she had rebuked him, sometimes quite violently as well when he had got too exuberant about it. Kotetsu snorted at his friends daydreaming speech, "Sure she is, whatever you say, I don't understand why you don't try and go out with someone else, what about that Orihime I have seen you hang out with every now and again? She seems nice, and it would get rid of your fascination with Riku, perhaps get her to appreciate your presence a bit more…" Kotetsu trailed off as Izumo looked up, his grin visible from where Naruto was hiding.

"That's, that's brilliant Kotetsu, If I go out with someone else, and treat her really well, then Riku will get real jealous that I am treating some girl other than her, and she will then want to go out with me!" He stood doing a thumb up gesture and a wide grin. He wasn't to know that whilst doing it to Kotetsu, he was also doing it to Naruto's hidden position, who had stopped breathing for a moment as he thought about it, his mind processing the seeming moment of brilliance he had luckily been given by the young chuunin, rushing off to think of it some more and plan it all, as quietly as he could so as not to disturb the two chuunin.

If he had stayed a minute longer he would have seen Izumo slump, his grin disappearing as he sighed despondently. "Who am I kidding? Doing that to any girl, that would be heartbreakingly cruel, I'm not that much of a jerk, and I bet it still wouldn't do me any good with Riku." Kotetsu patted him on the shoulder and the two fell into a companionable silence, unknowing of the massive consequences their seemingly simple conversation would have on the entire elemental nations, and the future of the 5 great villages.


	2. The Plan

Previously on The Deception gone Awry:

"_That's, that's brilliant Kotetsu, If I go out with someone else, and treat her really well, then Riku will get real jealous that I am treating some girl other than her, and she will then want to go out with me!" He stood doing a thumb up gesture and a wide grin. He wasn't to know that whilst doing it to Kotetsu, he was also doing it to Naruto's hidden position, who had stopped breathing for a moment as he thought about it, his mind processing the seeming moment of brilliance he had luckily been given by the young chuunin, rushing off to think of it some more and plan it all, as quietly as he could so as not to disturb the two chuunin._

_If he had stayed a minute longer he would have seen Izumo slump, his grin disappearing as he sighed despondently. "Who am I kidding? Doing that to any girl, that would be heartbreakingly cruel, I'm not that much of a jerk, and I bet it still wouldn't do me any good with Riku." Kotetsu patted him on the shoulder and the two fell into a companionable silence, unknowing of the massive consequences their seemingly simple conversation would have on the entire elemental nations, and the future of the 5 great villages._

Chapter 2: The beginnings of a plan

Four hours later, and another crumpled up piece of paper flew across the room from Naruto's battered, old, and until now unused desk. The idea had seemed a brilliant one he had thought as he had hastened away, but now that he had sat himself down to think about it, none of the girls he knew were suitable for the strategy, most knew his idiotic and exuberant public persona too well, and would reject any advances just on principle like Sakura did, or at least be very suspicious about why he had suddenly stopped being interested in Sakura and had changed to liking them in such a short amount of time. His stomach grumbled, for the third time during this planning session, and without thinking about it too much with his now sleep needing brain, Naruto moved his hands into the now familiar cross sign, summoning a Kage Bushin to fetch him some instant ramen.

As the clone slouched off, no more awake than its creator, the original was sat, staring dazedly at his hands, something clicking to life inside his head, and the next minute, he was scribbling away, grinning wildly. Of course! If he couldn't find a correct girl, then perhaps, he could create one that would achieve the same purpose? Even as he wrote down the beginnings of his plot, his mind processed the idea more and more, and he realised he was setting himself probably the hardest task that he had ever faced in his young life, but he would manage, He was a Ninja now Dattebyo! Nothing was beyond him if he put his mind to it now.

The newly dubbed Project Shadow soon stretched an entire side of A4, far more than he had written on one topic in quite some time. Whilst he had been doing this, the Bushin had returned with his ramen, and seeing him busy, had placed it in the kitchen, before dispelling. Naruto's mouth suddenly began watering "mmm beef" he thought, before freezing for the second time this evening as he wondered how he had known that. The clone hadn't told him or given him indication, and he hadn't asked or thought of a flavour that he had particularly wanted whilst creating it and he was far too far away for him to have smelt it that quickly. Thinking very hard, he was suddenly assaulted by a memory of him looking down at what looked like… him, sat at his desk moving to pick his pen to write once more before freezing, before his vision turned away to complete his orders and he walked into the kitchen and picking beef ramen and cooking it in the microwave for three minutes, poking his head through the door and seeing his original self, working away hard on something, he decided to leave it in the kitchen for him to come get when he wanted it before his vision suddenly ended, and he was back as himself.

His grin became even wider, if that was possible, at the thought of how useful this would be, in both project shadow and other plans he might come up with as he progressed as a ninja. His thoughts were stopped by another wave of tiredness and hunger, and looking up at the clock, realised it was 4 am, and rushing to go get his ramen, he decided to leave the plan for the night, and return to it tomorrow, eating his ramen with his usual vigour and being finished in less than a minute. After preparing his traps, designed to alert him and deter anyone from entering the apartment, he had learned the hard way that a simple lock on the doors on the windows and doors was not enough to stop the more determined of his haters, he got ready for and then jumped into bed, and fell asleep quickly, a smile on his face as he did so, for the first time in years, for tomorrow was certainly going to be an interesting day.

**Time Skip: Next Day**

The next day rolled by quickly enough, and Naruto was soon at work on project shadow once more, he had a week after all before he was required back at the academy for graduation and team assignments. With the idea that he could see what his clones had done and possibly were doing at any given time, he set to work with abandon. Now he had the basis of the plan, he needed the girl to invent, and as such he needed more data. Every time he ran into a roadblock in planning the girl, he didn't get frustrated or angry, and he wrote the problem down as a question that needed to be answered, and then moved on to the next point. This level of dedication would have made Iruka faint in shock from the usually inattentive and troublesome student, if the man had been there. By 1 pm, he had several sheets of questions to think about over lunch, and surprisingly little actual facts to go off. The Questions ranged from simple questions, such as the girls name and where did she come from? To why had she come to Konoha? Where were her family and why weren't they with her? How was she going to earn a living? With all of these in mind, he created almost a 100 bushin, ready to research all of these topics and help create this character in the plot he had woven together.

"You ten, go disguise yourselves, then head to the market, see what information you can get. You lot" He pointed to about 20 of them and they separated themselves into a group. Nodding in approval he continued. "You are to go to the Artisans district in disguise, find out what job could she do? And by that I mean what can we learn to do in the next few days? What is realistic? Remember, we are making a civilian here, not a ninja so nothing to over the top." He paused before looking at the remainder of his new troops, and gave his orders. "30 of you, split up, watch the gates, both the main ones and the smaller pedestrian based ones, I need to know schedules, procedures, lapses in guards and who would be the easiest to dupe? The rest of you, shadow some of the girls we know, we need to know how to act like a girl for a clone to be a girl, though no more than one of you to a girl, if you run out, find some other civilian girls to follow." This got a wince from some of the clones, but they nodded, one claiming the right to shadow Ayame straight away, obviously thinking of the ramen he would get, and they were about to leave when he shook his head, considering something that would help, or at least make it less suspicious.

"In fact, 10 of you guys plan a prank, make it the biggest, most audacious one yet, in chaos there is opportunity, as I once heard someone say. If we distract people, and become the centre of attention, it will be some much easier on her side as well for her to get into Konoha, and that will be the biggest challenge we face first." The clone's nodded one laughing mildly evilly at the mention of pranking, gaining a few odd looks from the others before they shrugged it off. After a moment more waiting to see if he had anything else, they spilt into their different assigned groups, though one of them turned to Naruto. "Boss, if we are doing all of this, what are you going to be doing?" Naruto nodded and grinned, it was a fair question after all, and it was good that he was making sure he wasn't going to get lazy due to his discovery. "I'm going to be training, we are Ninja now boys, we have to take this seriously, and pranks and stealth aren't going to be enough anymore." He then raised his arm imperiously and pumped it in what he thought was a manly action.

"Now you all know your tasks, remember, if we pull this off right, Sakura-chan is ours for sure, believe it!" Feeling that was inspiring enough as the clones cheered, he paused for a moment, allowing his minions to disperse through windows and doors, transforming into other people, animals and objects to begin their tasks, before he too headed out, his destination set on the area he knew was almost always abandoned in favour of the more exciting and better kept ones nearby, training ground 5, right on the edge of the village training grounds, nice and quiet.


	3. The Character Study, An Interest Group

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

"_Boss, if we are doing all of this, what are you going to be doing?" Naruto nodded and grinned, it was a fair question after all, and it was good that he was making sure he wasn't going to get lazy due to his discovery. "I'm going to be training, we are Ninja now boys, we have to take this seriously, and pranks and stealth aren't going to be enough anymore." He then raised his arm imperiously and pumped it in what he thought was a manly action._

"_Now you all know your tasks, remember, if we pull this off right, Sakura-chan is ours for sure, believe it!" Feeling that was inspiring enough as the clones cheered, he paused for a moment, allowing his minions to disperse through windows and doors, transforming into other people, animals and objects to begin their tasks, before he too headed out, his destination set on the area he knew was almost always abandoned in favour of the more exciting and better kept ones nearby, training ground 5, right on the edge of the village training grounds, nice and quiet._

Chapter three: The Character Study and an Interested party

After Three days, the plan was going rather well Naruto thought. At the end of the first day he had cancelled his clones in one go, once they had all returned to his flat from their days work, and had ended up collapsing into a pained stupor for almost two hours as his brain almost shut down due to the sudden influx of, essentially, stuff. Since then, he had learned only to disperse a few at a time if he wanted their memories. Also it was to save his poor head, and to reduce the amount of time he had to spend sifting through the memories to try and ensure that he remembered the useful stuff. They also learned that there was a method to stop him receiving clones memories, but that seemed to involve a rather violent dispersal to ensure it happened. And it didn't always seem to work, so he stayed away from that line of thought for now, that purple haired woman's kunai was sharp.

His pained noggin aside, he had learnt an awful lot of interesting data in the last few days. The market had been a hubbub of information for those that knew what they wanted to know, like the hike in the cost of different types of rice's and other foodstuffs, due to the recent wave of bandits and missing ninja in Rice Country. Then there was the lack of caravans coming from Wave country to the south, except for those by Gato Corporations, whose members had refused to comment on the situation in the country at all when questioned about it, threatening to take their products when pressured to much for gossip or information. The most talked about topic of the last few days was the economic decline of Wind country, which Naruto knew from Iruka's lessons contained the sand village, one of the 'top 5' biggest ninja villages of which Konoha was also a member.

The Artisans district had been interesting as well, just by posing as small animals he had managed to observe the crafters at work, allowing him to get a basic understanding of how to forge metals and craft wood, though he knew that such a basic understanding would need a lot of work before he was able to do anything beyond the most simple of tasks. There had also been some tailors that he had seen, but they had worked far too delicately for him to get a good understanding of the processes, he would have to work on that another time. This was where his clones had some overlap, after two years of failing class and therefore knowing 3 different graduating classes, there had been a surprising number of girls around his age that he actually knew, and most of those that hadn't passed had gone into their family careers, meaning that he had essentially observed them from two different angles all three days, and he was mildly surprised how much each clone missed about what was going on, though he supposed it was to do with the fact he had sent them out too look at two very different things about the people they were shadowing, so it was natural they would focus on some bits and not others.

One girl that had interested him the most was a girl that he remembered from last year, who had gone on to become a full genin, but still worked at a blacksmiths in her spare time. Noting the girls name down, Tenten he thought it was, he determined to try and get back in touch with her at some point soon, she was obviously talented and passionate about blacksmithing if she had manage to acquire and keep such a job whilst being a on duty ninja, and from what his clones had noticed during her daily routine, didn't have many close friends outside of her genin team, probably due to her lack of socialising time and her rather serious training regimes. This however didn't deter Naruto in the slightest, anyone who was prepared to work that hard on multiple jobs was a good friend in his book, and certainly classed as unique amongst all the girls he had observed, most of whom worked the minimum required time for their shift and then went to spend all their hard earned money on clothes or make up.

Filing all of those thoughts away with a shake of his head, he turned back to the plan, and finished his decisions regarding his 'masterpiece' as he and his clones had jokingly started calling it. He had immediately disregarded the girl being more than a year and a half younger than him, he knew that anybody of around that age would be 'requested' to join the academy, even more so if they were an orphan, as his girl would have to be. He had decided in the end that her being half a year younger than him, born on the 16th of April would be for the best, as it would then be reasonable for her to look up to him without seeming to be doting. He had from that information then created her look and features, everything from shape and size of nose, to length and colour of her hair. The finished product was a girl who was slightly taller than average, with hazel eyes and shoulder length black hair, common enough in the elemental nations, and what had become clear as a rice country build and a fire country face, which she would claim was her mother's heritage, as their village was near the border between the two countries in Naruto's fictional past for the girl.

On Rice Country, he had had the clones fetch some books on the place, so that if questioned the girl would know enough information about her home of origin. The current stuff was easy enough; he had a clone follow a caravan out of Konoha to get an idea on the lay of the land. He had heard back that morning, when bandits had attacked the caravan with military precision, before being beaten off by Konoha patrols, who didn't pursue the bandits when they had fled beyond the border into rice country. This failure just went to show that the ninja had their limitations in how much they could protect the caravans, and that even in fire country, you weren't completely safe from attack, regardless of the propaganda around the village about fire country being the safest place in the whole of the elemental nations. Next was family background, and what had happened to them to cause the girl to appear by herself at the entrance to Konoha, which he created a new sheet for the purpose and began to work on solving this new problem.

In his concentration, he failed to notice that in the corner of his now rather cluttered apartment, hidden under a rather complex Genjutsu technique that focussed on all of the senses rather than just one, was hidden a masked ninja in ANBU clothing and armour. The masked face took everything in without reaction or emotion, the plans, the gossip and the intentions of the young ninja in training had towards the village because, he mused as he scratched the 'NE' mark on his mask idly, Danzo-sama had asked to know everything that the boy Bjuu container was up to, especially when he had come up with a scheme that bordered on brilliance in several ways. It was 1 am when the ninja felt it safe enough to Shushin out of the boys apartment and onto one of the nearby roofs, to meet his replacement for the next 12 hour shift, and after a wordless update that was transmitted using hand signals, he had jumped off down into the streets of Konoha, slipping off quietly to one of the secret entrances that the root ninja used to get to their HQ, so that he could report and then grab some shut eye. The entrance was in one of the quieter training grounds, and after pressing several seemingly random points in the ground in order, a small opening appeared, allowing him to drop almost 5 metres to the tunnel floor below.

He hurried through the maze of passageways, doubling back on himself twice, so as to ensure he wasn't followed, as was procedure for NE agents who were at place in the city. After several more minutes quick walking, he arrived at a much better maintained and lit set of tunnels, which led to the various training areas and bunks required by the group. Following the same old path he soon found himself outside the heavy oaken doors of Danzo's office, which he knocked quietly on twice. Waiting for a moment, he heard the coded command to enter, thanks to his sharpened hearing, and entered quickly, not wishing to waste his boss's time. The room was remarkably Spartan, with nothing but a map of Konoha on the wall behind the chair and desk of probably the most informed man in Konoha, not including that idiot Jirayia who somehow managed to run a godlike informant network.

The man in question was sat in his desk, looking over papers involving various mission details and financing details. The man certainly did not strike you as imposing or even commanding, at 5'6 he was one of the shortest male ANBU in history, and that isn't including the obvious detriments of his crippled arm and eye, or his age, a tender 72 that year. Regardless, As the 'war hawk' as he was often referred to looked up, the calculating look, the air of ease and authority that seemed to wash over the Ne as he was examined in a mere moment, the man's strength was his weakness, people did really underestimate him for his Injuries, and he would use that at the most vital moment against them. "Your report on the boy and his recent actions agent, your last report was not very clear on what the boy was planning."

No pleasantries, all business, which was how Danzo preferred to operate whilst on duty. With easy precision the scroll was exchanged silently, and Danzo began reading whilst the Ne agent stood there, awaiting the verdict. What he did not expect was the raspy chuckle that erupted from the old man's lips as he continued reading, which persisted for quite some time throughout the analysis. Finally Danzo sat back, his face a grin with amusement. "Amazing what one boy's determination and inability to admit defeat can do, he had no help with this from anyone?" The Ne agent shook his head. "As far as we can gather, it is all Naruto's own work, other than his shadow clones that is." Danzo nodded. "Excellent, this, if anything, is exactly what I need to prove to Sarutobi that we have got too lax and peace like in recent times, if one boy, barely a genin, can infiltrate our defences with a mole, and then leave her there, then I'm sorry, we should give up and ask to be invaded now."

The Ne agent said nothing; he knew that if his input was required he would be asked for it. "So, the question is now, what do we do with this information? Any Ideas, Agent?" As the agent opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off by the voice that was clearly female. "Let him run with it Danzo-sama, he isn't doing anything against the law at this point, and even after Infiltration, all he has essentially done is infiltrate himself into his own village, which cannot be a punishable offence surely?" Danzo nodded then looked at the Ne agent, who was trying to subtly work out who that voice belonged to, he couldn't see her in the shadows without turning his head, and it reminded him of someone from somewhere though placing it was beyond him.

The agent decided to give his own input now it had been asked for "I think we give him a bit of a hand Danzo-sama, after all, if this is to prove a point, we want it to work to its greatest extent. I must also admit the idea that's spawned this, if the kid pulls it off…" The Ne agent shook his head "There's a reason he's the luckiest person in the elemental nation, there's no way this would work for anyone else." Danzo nodded in agreement, if any other ninja had presented him with this idea as a way to test Konoha's defences against infiltration, he would have easily come up with a dozen different ways for it to fail, from the fact that the shadow construct was to flimsy to survive the Konoha village environment, to the reasoning that the chuunin guards would be able to detect the large amount of chakra present in the bushin.

But Naruto, in an odd case for the orphaned container, seemed to have thought of ways around this, planning on creating the girl clone with a 100 other clones at the same time, which would dramatically reduce the output of the clone to the point where the guards would not be suspicious of its chakra. And the fact that he was having the infiltrator become a civilian meant that it would not be subject the roughest parts of Konoha's life, shadow clones were fairly weak it was true, but they could stand the hassle of a market street as long as no one hit it too hard. Humming to himself, he made a decision in regards to the boy.

"Keep tabs on him, I want to know exactly what he does and why he does it, but we will not give him any help yet, only if it looks like he will fail will we step in and change things up, otherwise, we do what we always have done, and that is sit in the shadows and wait for the boy to do what he does, and that is surprise everyone." With a nod of assent from both of the present characters, he then waved his hand dismissively. "Well, get out of here, I expect the next report in four days from your replacement as you are on leave, as that is when he is planning on doing his infiltration." With another nod, both nodded and vanished in shushin jutsu away from the area. Sighing , Danzo looked down at the paperwork he still had to complete before he could go home,it was going to be a long night.


	4. The Beginning of the Project

Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:

_But Naruto, in an odd case for the orphaned container, seemed to have thought of ways around this, planning on creating the girl clone with a 100 other clones at the same time, which would dramatically reduce the output of the clone to the point where the guards would not be suspicious of its chakra. And the fact that he was having the infiltrator become a civilian meant that it would not be subject the roughest parts of Konoha's life, shadow clones were fairly weak it was true, but they could stand the hassle of a market street as long as no one hit it too hard. Humming to himself, he made a decision in regards to the boy._

_"Keep tabs on him, I want to know exactly what he does and why he does it, but we will not give him any help yet, only if it looks like he will fail will we step in and change things up, otherwise, we do what we always have done, and that is sit in the shadows and wait for the boy to do what he does, and that is surprise everyone." With a nod of assent from both of the present characters, he then waved his hand dismissively. "Well, get out of here, I expect the next report in four days from your replacement as you are on leave, as that is when he is planning on doing his infiltration." With another nod, both nodded and vanished in shushin jutsu away from the area. Sighing , Danzo looked down at the paperwork he still had to complete before he could go home,it was going to be a long night._

**A/N: the reviewer that thought Naruto being smarter than in the anime is correct, that is the case, but this does not mean that Naruto is going to be a genius like Sasuke or Sakura, it just means hes not a complete idiot. He will still miss things and get things wrong, this isn't a overpowered Naruto that walks over all the ninja around him, he will get his ass handed to him in different ways many times. Now on with the Story!**

Chapter 4: The beginnings of Project Shadow and unforeseen complications

Umi Kaitoma ran towards Konoha, away from the burning caravan that had been kind enough to give her transport and shelter as they moved into the land of fire. Outside of character the shadow clone of Naruto Uzumaki, reinforced with chakra to improve his rigidity and life-likeness, cursed his bad luck and those he had been travelling with. He had snuck out of Konoha through the gates at about midday, under the guise of a merchant, getting almost a mile from the wall before breaking his henge and creating the shadow clone. The clone took a good portion of his chakra to make, and was the product of almost three days' worth of experimentation with the shadow clone technique. It was harder, stronger and faster than his other clones, nothing compared to himself of course but nothing to be laughed at. The clone had then moved off to the main road on the rice country border whilst the original returned to Konoha, this time under a different guise.

Reaching his destination he had transformed into the characterised Umi, ensuring that his clothes looked muddy and well used. Another result of the experimentation was that each of Umi's clothes could be removed and not be considered part of the original clone, something that had been an obvious flaw quite early on in the development process. She had taken less than an hour to encounter a caravan headed towards the centre of Hi no Kuni that would pass by Konoha on the way. She had been instantly mothered by the head of the caravan's wife after explaining tearfully that her family's farm had been burned by bandits, and that her father had told her to run as fast as she could and to get out of rice country. She claimed she had heard that Konoha was a safe place to live, and she really wanted to try and do something other than farming with her life. And as it would only take two days to reach Konoha there was only the charge of one hundred Ryo to be paid, which the clone managed with the money the original had given him, the caravan saw no reason not to let her accompany them.

Things had then gone to shit when only 10 miles from Konoha's familiar wooden walls bandits had leapt from the trees, their numbers enough to quickly overwhelm the few guards the caravan had hired to defend them. The caravan leader had told her to run for Konoha and get help, and that was what she did, trying to ignore the sounds of screaming and jeering from behind her, as some of the bandits gave chase to her. The bandits had stopped chasing about twenty minutes beforehand to return to the looting and pillaging. She hated feeling weak, but the best she could do in her current capacity was go for help as fast as she could and hope that they would be able to rescue the survivors before they were taken away somewhere horrible. The gates of Konoha came into view very quickly and as she approached she saw two chuunin who were sat in the booth by the large gates, playing some type of game. She yelled out to them desperately. "Help, please help! Bandits are attacking my caravan!"

In an instant the chuunin were on their feet, one talking into his earpiece, and the other sprinting towards her. Strength gone, she felt her legs give out and she began to tumble to the floor, only for the Chuunin to catch her and help her back to her feet. The gates opened slightly and a squad of black clothed ninja poured out a great speed, shooting off down the road that Umi had come from, a blur to her vision. "Ms, don't worry, you're okay now." Umi nodded, but knew she had to get the message out, otherwise it was all for naught. Forcing herself up, she managed to speak unsteadily to the one who had caught her. "Please, bandits attacked the caravan…" The man nodded in understanding before tapping his ear in a complicated pattern.

"Do not worry Ms; my men are on their way to help your caravan." He then brought out a small container of water that he raised to her mouth, pouring a little inside, which she swallowed quickly in order to soothe her parched throat. After drinking most of what would have been inside the container, she struggled to her feet with the man's help, who helped her to the side of the road where there was a guard booth set up. Setting her down in chair, he channelled chakra into the pot on the surface top, which used seals to convert the chakra into heat energy for boiling water to serve tea. Electric versions were available, but it was cheaper to have someone heat their water with chakra on guard duty, one of the many money saving schemes that had been implemented by the council since the Yondaime had died.

After pouring a cup of hot tea, which she nursed carefully, having observed his simple heating of the water with his chakra in obvious awe, though it was more due to the fact that the original did not know that such devices existed, they would have been so useful, he obviously decided that the time was right to ask some questions before she fell asleep or got too comfortable that she lapsed into shock from what had happened today. "I am afraid I must ask you a couple of questions now, Ms…" she replied quietly "Umi, Umi Kaitoma Shinobi-sama, I just wanted to come to Konoha to live quietly I swear, after mama and papa were killed…" She cut off in what she hoped was a believable moment of sorrow, and it seemed to work as the man shifted uncomfortably before continuing.

"I am sorry to hear that Umi-san, my name is Izumo and there is no need for the sama I assure you. Were your parents with you on the caravan here? Do they have your documents with them?" Umi shook her head sadly; this was where Naruto's backstories paid dividends to her entry plan. "We had them on our small farm on the other side of the border, just inside Rice country, and that was all I knew, papa wanted me to take over the farm when I grew up, even though I was a girl, or he wanted me to find a local boy to marry, so they could look after it instead. But then, then the bandits came, and papa was screaming for me to run, and I did, I did it all night until I reached the main road, which is where I met the caravan… it wasn't the bandits that were following me that attacked the caravan was it?" Izumo shook his head reassuringly in an attempt to sooth her, she was acting quite frantic now as the thought that such a thing could have happened if Umi's backstory had not been entirely fictional. "No, I highly doubt it Umi-san, they would not risk attacking a caravan in fire country for the simple reason of trying to stop you escaping, and this was just an unlucky happenstance. If you do not have your documents due to their destruction, I will call a ninja here to take you to the administration buildings, where they will ask you some more questions and create you some new documents for you to use whilst you settle here."

Umi couldn't help the shocked grin that spread over her face as she hurriedly placed her tea down and ran to hug him gratefully; the plan was working better than they had thought it would. "You mean I can stay?" Izumo nodded, smiling fondly at her reaction "Of course, Konoha welcomes anyone who comes with the correct intentions, and you need somewhere to stay after your horrible past. The Administration boys have the last say, but I don't think they will have any objections at all." It took ten minutes for the ninja to arrive that would come and escort her to the offices, but they had flown by as Umi had jumped between worry for her caravan friends and joy for having got past the first stage of Project shadow.

Now as she walked with her escort through the streets of Konoha, she was counting down the seconds before stage two began. The signs of it were already present, with people covered in tar, feathers, paint, or a weird mixture of the three. The chuunin with her was obviously trying to ignore the sights that she was looking at, mumbling about annoying brats, before suddenly tar fell upon him from the rooftops, followed by feathers floating down to stick atop of the liquid substance. Looking up, Umi saw Naruto grinning down with two empty buckets in hand. "Uzumaki!" The chuunin yelled, and was about to give chase when he remembered his charge, and seemed torn between his duty and his revenge on the blond haired brat. Naruto noticed this, and to sweeten the deal, decided a bit of taunting was not pushing the prank too far.

"What's the matter, are you too chicken to come after a future Hokage! I knew I was awesome, but to be scaring chuunin like you already, you must really be pathetic…" That seemed to work, as the chuunin leapt at him with a roar, Naruto back flipping easily, running away with a cheeky grin on his face, the two leaving Umi alone in the supposedly unfamiliar city. Before she had to act too worried about being alone, a voice called out from behind her, causing her to jump and spin round, the clone's nerves still on edge from encountering the bandits and having to run for her life. She calmed a moment later when she saw Naruto, the original she assumed at any rate, stood there leaning against the side of the pavement she and her escort had been walking on. "Hi there, noticed you looked a little lost, and as I've not seen you around here, are you new to Konoha?"

She nodded, a little warily, the ninja who had been leading her didn't seem to like this boy, even before he had pranked him, but at the same time the boy seemed friendly enough, and wasn't avoiding her like the plague, which the other villagers were doing. His grin increased in size and he stepped forward, bowing slightly. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, genin level ninja, pleased to be your first friend in Konoha." This bit had not been a planned by the clone and master before meeting, as they could not be entirely sure which ninja she would get as an escort and whether the plan would be able to distract the ninja to allow for Naruto to arrange the first meeting. As such, the clone had no script to work off, and had to improvise. She bowed back to him "Umi Kaitoma Naruto-san, and yes I am new here, I was on my way to get some new documents, as mine were lost when bandits burned my parents farm…"

She trailed off, her voice having gotten quieter and more downtrodden as she carried on. Naruto sensed that the clone was more than acting with her actions, and therefore reacted with genuine concern in his response. "Did something happen to you Umi-chan? I will show you to the administration building, they can sort you out." As they walked, Umi's story came out of her quickly; the events still fresh in her mind. Naruto's face grew stormy as they reached their destination, and he seemed to anticipate the arrival of the masked black cloaked men around him, one of which was spattered with multi-colour paint. One of them, obviously female with long purple hair and a mask painted to look like a cat, strode forward and held out a hand to Naruto as she spoke calmly with only the smallest hints of humour at her companion's misfortune. "Naruto-kun, you know why we are here, Hokage-sama wants to see you to explain that just because you have had a week off from the academy that does not mean you repaint Konoha in your favourite shades of the rainbow." The ANBU with the paint on his cloak, his mask looking like an ox growled at this and there was a chuckle from one of the remaining ANBU, though you couldn't tell which one.

Naruto nodded in a confused action before straightening himself up once more, his face set in stone as he reached out and grabbed the ANBU's hand. "Really? I didn't think my actions were quite worth an entire ANBU team being sent to apprehend me..." He trailed off, obviously shocked that the ANBU were in effect arresting him, before he turned to face Umi who was playing the part of confused newcomer very well. "Well, the building in front of you is the one where you will get your documents, and I am sure I will see you around the village soon enough. If you need a hand in the future, just ask around for Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage!" And with a shake of the cat masked ninja's head, they all disappeared in a flurry of leaves leaving Umi alone once more. She shyly looked around and slightly overawed by the whole flurry of events related to her arrival, and it was very meekly that she walked up and knocked on the large oak doors that signified the entrance to the civilian administration buildings, even more worried and unsure of her future now than she was when she had arrived to the village hidden in the leaves.


	5. Behind the Scenes

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_Naruto nodded sombrely, his face set in stone as he reached out and grabbed the ANBU's hand. "Good, I knew he would want to see me, and now I have my own discussion to have with him about events outside the village." He turned to face Umi, who was playing the part of confused newcomer very well. "Well, the building in front of you is the one where you will get your documents, and I am sure I will see you around the village soon enough. If you need a hand in the future, just ask around for Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage!" And with a shake of the cat masked ninja's head, they all disappeared in a flurry of leaves leaving Umi alone once more. She shyly looked around and slightly overawed by the whole flurry of events related to her arrival, and it was very meekly that she walked up and knocked on the large oak doors that signified the entrance to the civilian administration buildings, even more worried and unsure of her future now than she was when she had arrived to the village hidden in the leaves._

Now on with the Story

Chapter 5: Behind the scenes subterfuge

At the same time that Umi was meeting the wonders of Konoha paperwork, Naruto was being ushered into the workroom of the greatest of all shinobi since the Rikodu sannin themselves. The Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, titled by his enemies as the 'Shinobi no Kami' or god of Shinobi, veteran of 60 years of warfare and subterfuge. This was not to mention that he had lived through three world wars and both his predecessors and his successor to the title of Hokage reigns. He wore every one of those years in his office, his wrinkled form dwarfed by the gnarled oak desk that had been created by the first Hokage, the piles of paperwork only adding to the image. This did not mean that the man could not be commanding and intimidating when necessary however, even as he entered Naruto could feel the disappointed gaze of the man he affectionately termed 'Jiji' upon him and squirmed like the admonished child in front of his parent.

The grizzled shinobi sat back in his seat with a sigh and lit his pipe with a click of his fingers, his gaze never leaving the young shinobi in front of him. "Naruto, I think we all know what you have done wrong and why you have done it, but you are a shinobi now, and as such cannot get away with the same childish pranking that you did when you were younger." Naruto's breath had stopped at the start of that sentence, thinking that the Hokage knew the truth about Umi, though it quickly became evident that he did not and was only punishing him for the prank. He quickly bowed his head and apologised though, even with all the planning into his project, he had not remembered their would be a consequence to his pranking. Sarutobi puffed out a perfectly formed ring of smoke, and spoke with mild exasperation, gesturing to the pile of paperwork on his left, more than half the work on his desk.

"That pile of paperwork is the first part of the consequence of your actions today. That is at least another 3 hours work for me before I can go home tonight, and the same goes for the civilian administrators and their secretaries. This means that you now owe me for that time, and the time of those you have inconvenienced with your prank." Naruto gulped, contrary to general opinion, Naruto could actually do mathematics when he felt like it, he just found it too boring when there was no real purpose to finding the answers to the problems he was presented with. In this occasion however he quickly worked out that he had in the process of ensuring Umi's successful intergration into the village, clocked himself almost 100 hours of punishment time from the Hokage, and that was if Sarutobi kept it at the lightest sentence that seemed possible, which was to repay every hour with another hour. If the man decided that the punishment was to be more severe on Naruto and to double that time…

Naruto flinched slightly as Sarutobi chuckled once more. "So you realise the magnitude of your efforts today, at least in part. At this point in time Naruto, you owe 371 hours 54 minutes of time to the village of Konoha, and 4000 ryo worth of damages." Naruto nearly fainted at that, how had the number got so high? He then remembered that he had not included the work of the shinobi guards who had chased after him whilst he was performing the prank or those that had to be drafted in to cover the positions left vacant by the chasers. He gulped and looked up pleadingly to the Hokage, hoping against hope for some level of reprieve. Sarutobi shook his head and wagged his finger at Naruto. "You are an adult now Naruto, you became one the moment you accepted your headband, and as such, you have to face the consequences of your actions."

Naruto's mood had hit an all-time low, there was no way he was going to be able to pay the fine, work off the time, and actually keep his flat and Umi's when she got one. With a deflated sigh Naruto bowed his head dejectedly. "By your leave then Hokage-sama, I need to go and pack." With Sarutobi raising his eyebrow at the statement but nodding nevertheless, Naruto turned and headed quietly to the door. Just as he reached the door, he turned and asked a surprising question, though his dejected manner obviously hit Sarutobi hard. "By the way Hokage-sama, a caravan was attacked not far from Konoha today, I met one of the people who survived, did we catch the attackers?" Sarutobi's eye quirked further, but he responded slowly. "No, no we did not manage to catch them Naruto, the bandits were gone with their loot and prisoners by the time the chuunin got there, and they have covered their tracks very well." Naruto nodded sadly as if expecting the answer and then opened the door and moved through it, shutting it quietly behind him leaving the Hokage alone to his work.

Persona Change: Hiruzen Sarutobi; Fire Shadow of the Leaf village

Sarutobi sat back with a heavy sigh, the conversation had gone better than he had expected, and that was the worst part about it he supposed. Naruto had been hit by the truth about the reason he was shunned and hated by the villagers and a few of the shinobi who would not listen to the Hokage's explanations, and then in a prank that was obviously meant to be the boy's way of getting back at the villagers for their misguided dislike in a way that would not cause great harm or damage, he had accidentally and unknowingly forced himself into a position of effective servitude to the village. Sarutobi couldn't lessen the time owed, as much as he would have liked to, Naruto was a shinobi now, one of his soldiers, and if he showed anymore favouritism than he already had towards the container there would be uproar from both the civilian and military sides of his village.

Almost half an hour later, the shadow in the top corner of his office finally shifted, and the cat masked ANBU from before leapt down silently, standing in front of Sarutobi respectfully, allowing the man to puff on his pipe for a moment longer, in an attempt to reduce the distaste he felt at dealing out the young boy's punishment. Finally he took one last long inhalation, and nodded for the woman to speak, his other hand making a gesture for the other ANBU, those who were assigned as his guards at all times, to leave for the moment to allow them some privacy. They did so, only far enough not to be able to hear anything, more than close enough to move to his protection if it was required. The moment that she sensed they were gone, the woman opened up into a respectful but still scything diatribe at him.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, do you realise what you have done? You may have just cost us one of the most promising new genin we had in years, and all because of one prank? I admit it was audacious and large, but the ingredients all seemed to have been picked to be removable and not too damaging to clothing. In fact the only damage that was actually done to anything was done by the shinobi pursuing the boy's clones, not the boy himself, and yet you lay all the blame solely on him? Not even Anko gets that level of punishment, and her pranks are sadistic and borderline murderous at times! You could have declared it was a training exercise, and that every shinobi that had been caught by Naruto was killed by an enemy assailant, and not only would it have given the boy some respect, it would have been believable as well. 4 ANBU Hokage-sama, that's how many of my men, my soldiers, would have been killed today if Naruto and his clones were infiltrators rather than pranksters, and that's just the clean kills, another dozen would have been maimed or crippled. I'm not even going to go into the number of our regular shinobi that were caught up in it…"

She seemed to run out of steam, ending up just glaring at the Hokage through her mask. Sarutobi had to admit he was surprised that she had been so pressing on the subject; she was usually very controlled no matter the situation at hand. Thinking about what she said, he realised it did actually make sense and he voiced it as such. "I would have covered it with the training exercise ruse if I had thought of it Yugao-san, but I do not think of everything and as such, the boy had to be punished for what he has done. Considering the number of people that were clamouring for his head after this event, claiming this proved he was a menace to the village, his time owed and the monetary fine is some of the nicest things I could have punished him with."

He felt the increase in the intensity of her glare at this comment and couldn't help but think he was missing something for a moment before he was brought back to the first thing she had said to him. He spoke rather disbelievingly "What do you mean, we might lose him? I know it seemed harsh but Naruto is not going to abandon the village surely? The fine should be easily absorbed by the money I have been giving him as well as the stipend. As he owns the apartment complex it's not like he has to pay rent…" He was cut off by the slamming of Yugao's hand into his desk and the spike of fury that ripped through the room to the point it was almost palpable. "YOU…YOU IGNORANT OLD MAN!"

The fact that Yugao, an ANBU captain of Konoha was here, screaming at him at the top of her lungs, killing intent pouring off her like the heat off a blazing inferno, made Sarutobi realise how much a mistake he must have made to earn this reaction from one of the most reserved Kunochi under his command. Yugao obviously even shocked herself with her outburst, and the next second the killing intent was gone and she was stood back at attention, eyes cast downwards in submission. The fire and fury were still there however, bubbling just under the surface even as his guards stormed back into the room weapons drawn and ready to fight. They were stopped with a look from Sarutobi and a gesture had them back outside, though no less ready to fight he imagined as he activated several privacy seals this time, just in case the fury of Yugao made a return.

He surveyed the woman in front of him for a minute in silence, noting the uneven flowing of her chakra, which showed a state of extreme emotion in shinobi to the point that they forgot all reasoning. To have garnered such a reaction, he was almost afraid of what he was about to uncover. "Yugao, take off your mask and sit, I think you have a lot to tell me." Yugao did so carefully, still worried about her leaders reaction to her loss of control, revealing a face that was unmarked by combat or disfigurement, a trait that very few elite kunochi could truly claim. As she placed the mask on the table, she looked down, and Sarutobi belated realised that she thought he was claiming her position in punishment for her outburst. He pushed the mask back to her with a gnarled hand to her obvious surprise, and he leaned forward, both elbows on the desk and his hands joined underneath his jaw as he asked the most pertinent question of all at this point in time. "Yugao, why might Naruto need to pack his things due to this punishment?"

And for the first time, he saw something other than solemnness or anger enter the face of Yugao in almost 10 years, when she had first joined the ANBU at the tender age of 14. Sorrow entered her eyes and her features drooped. "He, he asked me not to tell you if you didn't ask, and you didn't until now so I wasn't breaking orders by not telling you. Hokage-sama, everything you think you know about Naruto's life has been twisted by the boy to ensure that you didn't worry about him more than you already do." Sarutobi's eyebrow quirked once more, he was doing that a lot this afternoon for some reason, all in regards to the young container. She continued before he could ask any questions though, her voice tinged with the same sadness that now encompassed her face.

"The fine worries me because unlike what you think, Naruto has no money to pay it off with. The villagers overcharge him for absolutely everything. He has to pay 5 times as much money for his gas and electricity as he should, his water is usually poisoned and overcharged, so he has to buy purifiers just to have a drink and as you know they are not cheap, if he doesn't he will be ill for days if he is lucky. The food they sell him has gone off or is similarly poisoned, why do you think every time you see him he insists on Ichikaru's ramen? As much as he loves ramen, it's more so that you don't have to see what he normally has to eat the rest of the time." She paused for breath, and Sarutobi's heart sank at the thought that there was more to come that he didn't know about.

"The only thing that was going to brighten things up for him was that once he became a ninja, he would earn more money off missions and therefore be able to live without having to get money off you or me to survive, and now that you have told him that effectively he has to do the first three months of his ninja career for free whilst having to continue to pay the ridiculous prices he does, assuming he passes his Jonin's test of course, and you wonder why I think he may be a flight risk? Even if he does stay he would have to live in the training grounds, as the only way for him to pay that 4000 ryo in the time period would be to sell the apartment building, as much as that would pain him to do so, it's not like the banks would give a newly minted genin with this kind of mark to his name a loan, even if he was just a normal kid. That's three months of living wild, with no social life due to lack of money, not that he would have much of one with the village attitude towards him, and only his team to support him? Unless you have put him with Kurenai-chan and two of the graduates that actually get along with him, him resigning and leaving is a forgone conclusion."

Sarutobi gulped, looking at the top piece of paper he had been looking over before tomorrow's graduation, the team selections. What he had thought was a harsh but fair punishment to curb Naruto's pranking instincts had turned out to be one of the worst things he could have done to the poor boy, who seemed to have taken the crippling blow to his life and career far to easily, with a resigned acceptance that came with true despair, something that only made Sarutobi feel even worse about what he had just done. He stood, preparing himself to go and try to find the boy and remand the punishment, anything before the boy left the village. Because until he passed the Jonin test tomorrow, regardless of what Sarutobi had said, Naruto was still a civilian in the eyes of the law. A civilian with a kinjutsu and a bjuu at his disposal, but a civilian nevertheless, so if Naruto did leave, there was nothing Sarutobi or anyone else in the village could do to bring him back, by force or otherwise.

If they did so, they would risk the wrath of the fire lord, who was a just defendant of civilians in Hi no Kuni, whether against his samurai or Sarutobi's ninja. He was stopped by Yugao's sob, an action he never would have predicted possible from the woman, even as she spoke her final piece. "Going after him now won't help; if you do all that will reveal is that I have broken his wish and his trust in me, and that will just make it even worse, as then he will not trust any of us. And you can't repeal the punishment; you stamped it with your seal straight after you got his acceptance and gave him the official copy, so it is legal and binding even to you."

Sarutobi sank back down, eyes shifting to confirm what his mind already knew, that Yugao was correct and he had stamped the paper with his seal, which the moment Naruto became a full genin would signal the start of his punishment, and he would have three months to pay the fine and to work off the debt. And another weight settled on Sarutobi's already burdened shoulders as he finally came to terms with what he had just done to a boy who had hidden the worst of his life from him, in an attempt to make an old shinobi's life less worry some. Though he knew there was nothing more he could do without making the situation worse for both himself and the boy, and could only hope that the boy would still turn up to the graduation class as he was meant to at 2 pm the next day.

**A/N: I know that this chapter is going to raise a lot of questions all over the place, so i will try and explain some logic now to stave off the tons of disagreeable reviews. Firstly the punishment is as far as I am concerned a reasonable one, and in many ways a shinobi replacement for community service, because once Naruto has graduated, he can work the hours off as quickly or as slowly as he likes as long as he gets them done in less than three months, which is equivalent to three-four hours a day minimum.**

**Then the meeting with Yugao and Sarutobi: I can hear the screams of 'Yugao is really out of character.' Well if you are saying that, then surely you should already be too upset that Naruto is not a grinning idiot to be reading this story? Rather than Kakashi who is the usual choice for these kind of 'Naruto's protector' events, Yugao is much more involved with Naruto, and in my head is the reason that he actually can read, write and do maths etc etc. Her having emotions? Well yes, people have emotions, even ANBU, if they didn't Danzo wouldn't have tried so hard to remove the emotions out of his troops would he?**

**Naruto deceiving the Hokage and the villagers actions: Considering some of the other deceptions that are written in as completely believable in other stories, hiding these things made sense as like with many kids, they will hide things like being picked on so that their families don't worry, this is just a more extreme case. The number of stories where every civilian is out for Naruto's blood and regularly try and assassinate him regardless of what he does have very much removed me from liking this form of Naruto's childhood. As such, the idea that the villagers go about trying to make him leave the villager by the economics of living makes more sense as unlike in most stories, people are not usually that stupid to go against superhumans (ninja) and think that they will get away with it.**

**Right, sorry for the long A/N, any other questions feel free to review, and hopefully you will all still be looking forwards to my next chapter Ja ne!**


	6. A light at the end of the tunnel

**A/N: Okay, I am very surprised at the reaction that the last chapter elicited, and I say that in a very good way. Two particular reviews are the ones that caused me to hurry a little with this next update, and I would like to thank iFrix for both his review and his reply to my reply to that. I realise he has a point about the tone of the last chapter in place of the first few that I have posted, and as i imagine many of the readers will have noticed this and been as confused by it as well, I will clear a few things up that iFrix brought up in our little conversation.**

**1. This is not going to be an Exiled Naruto fic: I now see that the end to the last chapter could give that idea, but Naruto is not going to leave for two reasons. Firstly, Naruto realises it is his own fault that the Hokage thought this was not a harsh punishment, very much a case of trying to be nice by lying coming and biting him in the ass. Secondly, Naruto is unaware that until he passes Kakashi's test he is not a shinobi, and therefore thinks that if he leaves the village to avoid the fine he will be labelled a missing nin, something that he knows would not turn out well for him considering how important the Kyuubi is to the village.**

**2. This story being first a romantic comedy then a dark emotion filled hate fest in one chapter: Well, its just how it pops together in my head. I honestly don't like trying to fit my work to a genre but I don't mind if you guys do. But I like to think this story's layout is somewhat similar to real life in that the downs can come quite quickly and unexpectedly after the ups. But i promise that this is not going to be a emo Naruto fic, he is still Naruto and will recover from this one way or the other.**

**Now I've cleared that up, the last thing is that whilst the Shadow Clone Deception is the underlying theme that I will be using to alter things in the Naruto universe, naruto is still a ninja, he is still one of the more powerful ninja's in his generation (he not only reached the finals to the chuunin exam on his first go, but then effectively won it by beating Gaara, who was the invasions secret weapon for god sake.) All this means that whilst Ms Umi will feature and be one of the more prominent characters in the story, Naruto will be doing a lot of other things than simply trying to get Sakura through his little scheme, and therefore it will develop quite slowly. **

**Right, apologies for the uber A/N, but felt it would be best to make sure that I hadn't managed to lose to many of you with the change of pace. If you do have stuff you want to say about the story, please tell me, I love the feedback as you can tell above. Now, on with the story Ja Ne!**

_Previously on The Deception, Gone Awry:_

_If they did so, they would risk the wrath of the fire lord, who was a just defendant of civilians in Hi no Kuni, whether against his samurai or Sarutobi's ninja. He was stopped by Yugao's sob, an action he never would have predicted possible from the woman, even as she spoke her final piece. "Going after him now won't help; if you do all that will reveal is that I have broken his wish and his trust in me, and that will just make it even worse, as then he will not trust any of us. And you can't repeal the punishment; you stamped it with your seal straight after you got his acceptance and gave him the official copy, so it is legal and binding even to you."_

_Sarutobi sank back down, eyes shifting to confirm what his mind already knew, that Yugao was correct and he had stamped the paper with his seal, which the moment Naruto became a full genin would signal the start of his punishment, and he would have three months to pay the fine and to work off the debt. And another weight settled on Sarutobi's already burdened shoulders as he finally came to terms with what he had just done to a boy who had hidden the worst of his life from him, in an attempt to make an old shinobi's life less worry some. Though he knew there was nothing more he could do without making the situation worse for both himself and the boy, and could only hope that the boy would still turn up to the graduation class as he was meant to at 2 pm the next day._

The last two hours had been exhausting, she had been accepted into the village, and the administration people had even given her 5 and a half thousand ryo to get accommodation, from a fund that was given to refugees from the fire lord's own coffers. Of course she could not carry that amount of money around on her along with her few meagre belongings so it was in the form of a bankers draft in her money pouch on her waist, one that was only usable in Konoha, a method they had devised of ensuring that their enemies wouldn't try and bleed them dry by sending in refugees and then having them leave. Despite this incentive however, none of the letting in the main village areas had had rooms available within anything approaching her possible budget, and had refused to allow any form of bargaining or pleading, something they obviously looked down upon due to their dealings with Ninja and their subterfuge.

As such she found herself traipsing piteously down towards the more suburban areas that were less well-kept and shadier districts, judging by the type of person that travelled down the streets with her. Her feet ached, her joints were stiff and at that moment her stomach clenched once more in hunger, reminding her that she had not eaten since the night before. Spotting a small ramen stand that seemed to be open, she ran to it, heading inside and plonking herself down on a chair. The waitress walked to her with a welcoming smile on her face that instantly made her feel at home. "Hello, I am Ayame, what would you like today?" Looking up at the board, Umi took a moment before deciding finally on a bowl of the mixed meat ramen. Noting it down the waitress turned and headed into the back to pass on the order. It came quite quickly and was the nicest thing Umi had ever tasted, and she quickly tore through it, ordering a second one with a giant grin on her face. Ayame giggled and shouted back to where obviously the kitchens were for a second bowl, a man's voice replying affirmatively a moment later.

Reaching backwards to get money from her pouch, Umi suddenly froze as she felt space where it should have been, and frantically began feeling for it, her shock turning to despair as she felt the cut ties on her belt that would have held the money belt in place. Tears came unbidden and she knelt forwards in her seat, her head in her hands as she began to cry, not understanding what she must have done wrong to have earned such a terrible day. A moment later something was placed heavily on the bench in front of her, and opening her eyes, she found herself staring blearily at her money pouch. Looking to her left, she found the same blonde shinobi from before stood there, smile gone and solemn expression on his face.

"How? Why?" Was all she could mutter through her sharp breaths of relief and he shook his head before speaking in a defeated tone. "I had a couple of clones follow you, as your new I thought you might have some trouble, so they alerted me when the thief stole your pouch, and I couldn't not go and retrieve it for you." She leapt at him, engulfing him in a hug even as she saw the waitress look at the shinobi with a smile. "Ohayo Naruto-kun, shall I get the Naruto special cooked for you." Umi released him from the hug and looked up to see sadness on his face, something that she didn't expect seeing as he was obviously popular enough here to have a meal named after him. The waitress hadn't expected it either if the speed at which she cleared the bar and was in front of the boy was any indication. "Naruto, what's happened? Is it to do with today, because if someone has been causing trouble I will…"

She quieted when he handed her a piece of parchment with a heavy sigh, and she looked over it quickly, her eyes widening as she glanced to the bottom before locking eyes with Naruto once more. "He didn't, surely he would know…" Naruto shook his head even as a elderly man poked his head out of the curtains, giant grin on his face. "Ayame, did you say Naruto was here…" He trailed off as Ayame handed him the parchment across the bar. Teuchi took a moment longer to read it, squinting at the smaller writing, before his hand formed into fists after placing the paper down in front of Umi, who read it as quickly as she could upside down. Naruto's voice echoed around her as she absorbed the words, surprised at what had happened, both in character and as a shadow clone, none of them had anticipated that this would be an outcome to today's events. "Of course he doesn't know, how could he with the way I have kept it secret all these years? I imagine he thought that the fine would be easy enough to pay off, if I actually paid normal prices for anything. I suppose if I sell the apartment block…" Ayame seemed to be caught between anger and crying, and judging by the creaking of her pencil in her hands, the former was winning out at this point.

At this point Umi made a decision, not as a shadow clone seeing a way out for his master's problem, but as a young girl who had been raised to repay her debts no matter the personal cost, as the backstory to her character had been. She reached into her money pouch and pulled out the bankers draft she had been given, standing suddenly and walking determinedly over to Naruto, placing it in his hands. He looked at her questioningly for a moment before looking at what she had given him, his eyes widening in shock even as he tried to force it back into her hands. "I- I can't take this…" Ayame came up to his shoulder, and her surprise was even more obvious at what was in Naruto's hand as Umi took a step back. "Naruto, what is it?" Teuchi asked confusedly, and it was Ayame that answered. "It's the girls money, 5 and a half thousand ryo, that must be almost all the money you own, why are you giving it to Naruto?" All three of them, even Naruto at this point, was looking at her with confused expressions, and though she felt the urge to blush or shy away, she stood her ground whilst replying. "If it were not for Naruto, this money would be in some thief's pocket anyway, and my parents always taught me to pay my debts to my friends. I think this is a suitable way to repay his kindness to me and a way to help him in his time of need."

The next second was a blur and she panicked before realised that Naruto had picked her up in a lifted hug and was swinging her round with joy. "Thank you, thank you so much Umi-chan, you are a literal life saver." Ayame was crying, though the smile on her face showed that they were of joy as opposed to anything else, whilst Teuchi had disappeared into the back once more, muttering about celebration ramen for the lot of them. Ayame seemed to understand him better than Umi had and rushed to the front of the stand, switching the sign from open to closed and pulling the curtains too around the eating area.

After a few more moments Naruto put her down, his expression serious once more, but it was Ayame that asked the question that Umi had expected. "But seriously Umi-chan, this is all of your money, how are you going to pay for wherever you are staying?" That brought the girl back to reality and she realised that she had in fact shot herself in the foot by helping Naruto, with no money, the best she could hope for now was that one of the inn owners would take pity and let her stay there and work for the rent money. She saw Naruto's face transform into a smile however at the thought and he spoke up. "Hey, Umi-chan, I think I know somewhere you can live if you are still looking, no rent either." This sounded brilliant to Umi, wondering of where Naruto was thinking of.

The shadow clone then had to spend a second reminding itself that it knew where he meant, this acting thing was starting to get weird. Composing herself once more Umi smiled gratefully at him "Really Naruto-san? Where would that be?" He grinned at her, putting his thumb up in a gesture that caused Umi to blush slightly. "Why, at my apartment block of course, it is the least I can do after you gave me your money like that." The old man reappeared with a giant pot of ramen in his arms. Placing it on the counter, he then dealt out four bowls, one for each person present. Ayame gave Umi a hug of her own, a giant grin on her face. "Welcome to an Ichikawa supper Umi-chan, it's on the house for helping Naruto-kun tonight as you have done." And as the other three members of the small group dug into their food with gusto, Umi couldn't help the feeling of satisfaction and belonging that came with the simple but warming gesture.

Persona Change: Yugao Uzuki

Above the stand, Yugao Uzuki listened in with a small smile as she heard about what the young refugee had done for the boy who she had only met for a few hours. Such selflessness and kindness was rare in the elemental nations, and almost unheard of amongst shinobi, whose very code insisted that emotions and kindness were weaknesses to be purged. Looking down, she perused the cheque she had written out for the boy she had met all those years ago, first as his silent bodyguard, then as an infrequent acquaintance, and then finally as teacher, helper and friend to a good but lonely soul in a village full of misguided hatred.

She thought about tearing up the cheque, after all, it was a good portion of her available money that was not tied down in her accommodation or savings, so leaving it as it was was risky, the number of people who were proficient at pickpocketing and forging made it a liability, especially as she had signed it. But she decided to keep it as it was for now, after all, just because the girl had given him enough money for the fine, that did not mean that he would be living easy until the work hours were paid off. She stood, ready to leave the four to their private moment, when she noticed a shimmer out of the corner of her eye, she almost ignored it as she gave it a second glance and sensed nothing, until she felt the light manipulation of her chakra flow that was an indication of a genjutsu. Instantly on guard, she altered her chakra flow and with a muttered "Kai!" she was confronted with a short black cloaked figure, who had obviously also been listening in on the proceedings in the ramen stand beneath them, only to shift their attention to her when she had started getting suspicious.

She was across the rooftop in a flash, her tanto drawn and locked with the figures katana that had been hastily drawn to defend themselves, deflecting her attack away with one hand, leaving her free to press the attack. The next second however, her vision was clouded with smoke and noise that disrupted her senses for a few seconds. The figure was gone by the time her vision cleared, and she was nowhere near a good enough sensor to try and track the infiltrator by herself. As she went for her pouch to grab an ANBU flare to alert the patrols nearby to an intruder, the rooftop suddenly became filled almost to the brim with Naruto clones, each of which was armed with kunai and ready for a fight. The nearest one relaxed at seeing her , and waved the other clones off as he asked almost jokingly "Neko-chan, what are you doing here? what was the smoke and noise for? if you wanted my attention you could have just popped your head in." Yugao was about to ignore him when she realised that the number of clones he had just summoned could be useful.

"Naruto-san, i am in pursuit of a cloaked figure that was spying on you, and possibly has been doing for quite sometime. Can you have your clones spread out and search for a black cloaked figure with a katana? And also alert the nearby ANBU should you encounter them that this is a level 3 emergency, authorisation Neko." All joking was gone from the young ninja now as he saluted his order from a superior officer and began directing his clones into search patterns with the beginnings of a grace that only comes from directing the actions of dozens in seamless fluidity. She was surprised that he was also numbering the clones off in numbers and letter combinations as a clone was stood sketching a map of Konoha on a small scroll with little kanji noting search areas for the different groups.

In less than 20 seconds the groups had all dispersed and the original Naruto was stood next to her with a radio in his hand with the same clone stood nearby him with the scroll. He looked over at her his face questioning even as he spoke. "So Neko-chan, what were you doing here when you noticed the intruder? Not that i don't appreciate you scaring him off or anything, its just that last time you turned up..." He trailed off and Yugao only just resisted pulling the pour boy into a hug. Instead she decided to maintain her composure and allay his fears. "I was here about that Naruto, but not in an official sense, I heard what happened and well, this is for you." She held out the cheque which he predictably shook his head and hands at before he even looked at how much she was offering. "Neko-chan, you know i can't accept that, it wouldn't be right at all, you've already given me 6 and a half thousand ryo over the years, anymore and i will never be able to pay it back." The fact that he had logged how much money she had given him shouldn't have been surprising but it made her feel that she was correct in looking after him regardless.

The refugee girl called up from below and Naruto turned to respond to her, giving Yugao the chance she needed. She slipped the cheque into his pocket with practiced ease and then activated the handseals for a shushin, grabbing the Naruto clone as she finished the last seal. Appearing on a rooftop not too far from the ANBU headquarters, she turned to the Naruto clone who was looking at her confused at the sudden departure, but cut it off before he could start gabbling. "You are my point of contact for the clones now, your boss deserves a night off. Now, tell me what your clones have found..."


	7. The Chase, The Chat, The Plans

**A/N: And here I thought I had had mixed chapters before, boy was I wrong, there is lots of hate developing from some people for this story, though most of it seems focussed on small aspects of it. This chapter is credited to ****TheRazgrizDragon ****as it was their enthusiasm that brought me out of a little slump I was having and convinced to write on. So with little ado I present the next chapter for your viewing pleasure, though I ask you to remember this is a fanfiction, i have already changed Naruto universe a fair amount, and if you don't like a part of the story, I apologise but it's your choice to read, I sure as hell ain't forcing you too.**

Chapter 7: The Chase, the Chats, The plans

_Previously on The deception gone awry:_

_She held out the cheque which he predictably shook his head and hands at before he even looked at how much she was offering. "Neko-chan, you know i can't accept that, it wouldn't be right at all, you've already given me 6 and a half thousand ryo over the years, anymore and i will never be able to pay it back." The fact that he had logged how much money she had given him shouldn't have been surprising but it made her feel that she was correct in looking after him regardless._

_The refugee girl called up from below and Naruto turned to respond to her, giving Yugao the chance she needed. She slipped the cheque into his pocket with practiced ease and then activated the handseals for a shushin, grabbing the Naruto clone as she finished the last seal. Appearing on a rooftop not too far from the ANBU headquarters, she turned to the Naruto clone who was looking at her confused at the sudden departure, but cut it off before he could start gabbling. "You are my point of contact for the clones now, your boss deserves a night off. Now, tell me what your clones have found..."_

Persona change: Ne member 371

Leaping out of sight of another clone of her mark, the Ne member cursed quietly at the boys fortitude and his surprising levels of planning and tactics with his duplicates. She had already had to destroy 3 clones to avoid them giving away her position completely, but that just seemed to help the other clones hone in on her general area. What was worse was that the ANBU patrols were also using the clones as markers, and they were far more worrying to her than the clones were as they had already tried to capture her twice, even if they were not as organised as the clones were they were much more skilled and dangerous. Almost as if they were listening to her thoughts, from around her several clones dropped from the rooftops. One of them motioned to her with his hands. "You guys keep her busy, i will radio in our exact position..."

He was cut off from speaking any further rather physically, as the Ne member appeared in front of him in a burst of speed, slicing his throat with her katana before he could react. The clone exploded into smoke, allowing her to break away from the group using her far superior speed. With no other options available, she leapt down to the streets below and with a single motion hefted the man hole cover up and out of the way, allowing her to leap into the sewers even as the remaining clones hurried down after her. Even as she raced away through the labyrinthine tunnels, she heard the clones shouting into their radios what had happened and relaying instructions to the other clones throughout the city. Fortunately no one knew the sewer systems better than she and the other root members, and twenty minutes later she emerged from one of the manholes away from the village, only after making sure that she was not being observed or followed in any way. Rushing to the nearest hidden entrance she could think of, she did one last scan for chakra signatures, and upon finding none, activated the hidden entrance and dropped inside, the entrance closing behind her and leaving her in darkness.

Traversing the corridors into the main parts of the base with ease despite the lack of sight, she flared her chakra to alert the guards that it was her approaching, due to the fact she was not meant to report for another four hours, if she did not announce her presence well in advance they would react with force to her arrival, in case she was a spy or otherwise compromised. They said nothing upon her arrival, though she could tell that Danzo-sama had already been alerted and was waiting for her. She entered his office and to prove the point he was waiting for her, sat back in his chair with an unreadable expression on his face. He spoke calmly, as if the manhunt in the village meant nothing to him. "371, i assume you are here to tell me why you are not currently watching your assigned target, and also why i am receiving reports that there is currently a manhunt going round Konoha for you headed by ANBU and your targets clones?"

She bowed her head, coming up with the response that logic dictated would end her disgrace fastest. "I was detected by the ANBU captain, Yugao Uzuki Danzo-sama, whilst i was watching over the target, it was only by chance and the targets clones obscuring their sensors that i managed to escape her and her following ANBU members without being forced to use my full abilities, which would have risked battle and possible capture." Danzo looked at her stonily for a moment before sighing almost too himself. "Well, some things are for the best, even if it is in a way that i had not necessarily wished. With your detection, Uzuki will no doubt present this little chase to the Hokage, and use it too prove a point, i have no doubt that it will coincide with what she presented to the elders earlier today, about treating the Uzumaki boys prank as a training exercise. On that note, what were the repercussions of the prank? Sarutobi has been very vague about it to everyone though 218 tells me that the boy looked absolutely distraught when he left the Hokage tower earlier this evening."

She outlined what she had read of the parchment that Naruto had been showing around the stand, and Danzo didn't even blink. "Not surprising, the sort of punishment that the Hokage would deem to be fair i suppose, and it was his own fault for trying to hide his difficulties. It does help us however, and i think it is time you reveal yourself to him." That got surprise from her, even if it were barely a flicker in her otherwise stoic countenance, why would she need to reveal herself to the one she is mean to be watching? "But, Danzo-sama, why should I?" He raised a hand, and she could tell he was not pleased with her outburst, she herself had been slightly surprised by it if she was honest. "Because, if you reveal yourself to him with his intentions in mind, should you be detected again whilst watching, he can help you escape and evade your pursuers, just as he did tonight." Okay, she really was in trouble if she was being told to enlist the same genin she was spying on to help her with her espionage. But, an order was an order and she was in enough trouble for her outburst. "Hai, Danzo-sama, shall i just say it is me, or should i make a reference to our organisation?" Both were risks to the operation, and as such she did not want to be the one holding the pieces if this came apart.

Danzo thought a moment, obviously pleased that she had asked the question, before speaking once more. "Make it out that you represent an organisation that works for Konoha, nothing more, nothing less, that should stop him refusing your aid out of hand at any rate. Now, go, i have work to do before this night is done." With the curt dismissal, she bowed her way out of the room without a word, glad to have gotten away without actual punishment this time. Though she knew that if she spoke out once more in any way that could be seen as emotional, Danzo might decide that she needed to undergo emotional training once more, not something she wished to do again if she could avoid it. With that out of the way, the only thing she had to do now was work out how to contact her target, amidst a search for her by most for the villages elite troops...she knew if she had been capable of emotions more complex than basic loyalty and the few emotions that sometimes forced their way to the surface, she would have been worried about her chances of success, but that's why she was root, they just got the job done regardless of the odds.

Time: 8 pm

Location: Naruto's apartments

After Yugao had dragged off his backup clone, Naruto had taken the unspoken hint that he was to relax for the rest of the evening rather than partake in a manhunt. He and Umi had enjoyed the rest of the ramen the ichikarus had prepared for him, taking the time to explain why he had run off. Ayame had been particularly worried about his spy and offered for him to stay the night with them rather than in his apartments by himself. He declined the offer graciously, It was not like they were going to try and get to him with all the ANBU out looking for them. Also on a more morose note, he did not want to put any risk towards those that actually see him as himself, there were far too few of them around as it was. After the two had finished, Naruto had led Umi through the streets of Konoha towards where he lived, showing her all the important areas on the way through that he considered necessary to know about. Arriving at the apartments Naruto had produced a large set of keys. Removing one, he had given it to Umi before showing her how to unlock the door had then let her run around the apartments until she found one she liked whilst he returned to his own apartment for a well earned cup of tea.

Turning the key in the lock he entered his apartment, headed reflexively through the lounge and was about to enter the kitchen when a voice spoke from behind him, making him jump in the air and spin round, cry upon his lips until he recognised not only the voice but the person sat eating grapes on his couch with a grin on her face. "Yugao-chan, why did you do that? you mean person, I could well have died of shock!" Standing up whilst swallowing her last grape, Yugao chuckled. "well, an 'awesome shinobi' such as yours truly should be more aware of their surroundings, what if I had been an enemy ninja, such as the spy from tonight?" "But my traps? How did you get past them without setting any of them off?" she grinned at his question, obviously enjoying his anxiety. "Naruto, I am an ANBU captain, if I couldn't get past some little pre-genin's traps I wouldn't deserve my title or my rank." Naruto didn't really have a response to that other than muttering about being awesome didn't mean that he knew everything yet. Seemingly understanding that she was not going to get anything else out of him without provoking more conversation, she jerked her thumb towards the door.

"So, whose the girl that lil Naru-chan is now going to be living with? You seem rather taken with her if the story you told her about her wallet was true... Either that or you did it yourself to ingratiate her towards you..." Naruto had never felt so embarrassed in his life at the accusations, even if Umi had been a real girl he liked, he would never have... "Yugao-chan! How could you say that about me? I would never... How did you even... And she's all alone and looked lost... I just lent a hand." His face was bright red at his stuttering attempts at defending himself, and even though her expression didn't change, he knew that inside she was laughing very hard at his current misfortune.

"Relax Naruto, I am only kidding, though she is a nice girl from what I've seen an heard so far, not many would be as selfless as she is with her money." at the mention of the money, Naruto stiffened, he felt awful about having to accept Umi's money, even if she was a shadow clone of his, it just wasn't right. Thinking back to what had happened, he realised that Umi had mentioned her caravan being attacked by bandits, but Jiji had said that the response team hadn't found anything when they arrived at the scene of the incident. Perhaps he could go check it out and see whether he could find something they had missed, after all he knew that the chuunin on duty were not always the most attentive when in a hurry. But first he supposed if that was the plan he had better get it cleared first. "Yugao-chan, I know your off duty now, and that you don't owe me any favours after you gave me that cheque and helped me out all this time, but I have a request for Jiji about tomorrow, and it will probably sound better coming from you..."

Time: midnight

Location: The Hokage Tower

'So, you are telling me that there is someone, with alligence and intentions unknown to us, has managed to infiltrate MY village for months if not years to spy on our resident container, and this has somehow managed to be overlooked by all those that are meant to be looking out for him until you just happen to get lucky whilst going to visit him? And then even after detecting the interloper they managed to escape from you, three ANBU squads and a pre genin you forcefully recruited on the night before his official graduation? With said pre genin the only one to come remotely close to apprehending the intruder with his clones during the chase round Konoha?" It was safe to say that Sarutobi was not amused in the slightest by the events of the evening thus far, especially considering the subject of the discussion definitely did not view the old leader in a favourable light at the moment. He finished his lecture with a tired sigh, looking at Yugao who was stood at attention, cat mask in place and ANBU uniform perfectly set without a stain or smudge on it despite having just finished searching again through the sewers for the very intruder they were discussing right now after ensuring the safety of the intruders targets by visiting him and ensuring he had returned safe.

Yugao still thought that the more telling part about the deficiencies in Konoha's security was Naruto's earlier prank that effectively immobilised half of Konoha's standing forces and a good portion of their infrastructure for most of the day, an infiltrator was par for the course in a ninja village, and it was not like the villagers made it any secret who the container was when they went about their daily routine. In all honesty it was surprising that there had not been any abduction or enticement attempts from the other ninja villages towards the young boy. Remembering that she should probably answer the semi serious accusations of incompetence from her superior towards her and her men. "The intruder was very skilled with both sight and auditory genjutsu, to the point that it was only mere luck on my part that I noticed a slight distortion that I assume was their reaction to my presence. Also, they were capable of suppressing their chakra to the point that their chakra signature became lost amongst the natural emissions of Naruto and his clones. This meant that the only way of us trying to apprehend them was when they were moving too fast to maintain a illusion whilst being pursued by Naruto's clones."

She paused for breath, Sarutobi waiting patiently for her continue, sat forward in his seat hands crossed under his chin expectantly. "We came close several times to engaging them in a full battle, but they used various escape jutsu to build up the distance and sow confusion in our ranks. The only good point about this debacle is that both Tori and Oni in squad two say they have a good enough read on their chakra that should the intruder arise again they will be able to track her down as long as we don't flood the air with Naruto's chakra once more." Having concluded her report she waited for Sarutobi to comment. " Well, at least Naruto has some proper combat experience, even if he doesn't consciously remember it. This does help prove the point you were making from earlier today though, we might have become a little too lax in security and apprehension if Naruto does a better job of cornering a suspect then the villages elite."

Remembering her earlier conversation with Naruto at the conclusion of the chase, Yugao decided to bring up his request so that the Hokage wouldn't think that she was hiding things from him once more. "Speaking of Naruto Hokage-sama, during our conversation at the conclusion of the pursuit, he made a request that whilst a bit out of the ordinary, I personally am inclined to grant him." she paused and the Hokage waited patiently for her to continue, a technique he had perfected with two children and two grandchildren. "He wishes to have an attempt at following the bandits he asked you about yesterday, he and the refugee girl who had managed to escape the attack are becoming fast friends so I think he wants to do it to try and help her." Yugao left out the fact that he may feel obliged to do it because of the money the girl had given him, best to let the old man sweat about the money issue a while longer before informing him of the good news on that front.

Even without her saying anything Sarutobi seemed to understand that there was more to this situation than meets the eye, but rather than try and dig for news about his unofficial grandson once more in regards to his relationship with the girl from out of town, an area that he did not wish to deal with again if at all possible, especially after the complications with his daughter Kasumi, he instead decided to try and focus on the boys request itself and the practicality issues associated with it. "My main query in regards to the request is simple, why does Naruto seem to think that he can perform any better than the squad of chuunin that I assigned to the investigation yesterday. They found a trail that barely continued for half a mile before it petered out into nothing, like the attackers just took flight and left without further trace."

Yugao waited a moment to see if he would continue before speaking her piece. "Even if he were to fail to uncover anything new, it would be a good experience for Naruto and it would give him some peace of mind when dealing with his new friend. I believe though that if there is something to be found there, he will be the one to find it, after all, he did manage to pull off a complete search of almost three districts of Konoha today in less than two hours with no preparation time and very limited support thanks to his clones and huge chakra reserves, which he coordinated and controlled surprisingly well all considering. I believe he will be able to pull of a similar solution here, the bandits can't have hidden their tracks so well for long with loot and captives to worry about as well." Sarutobi conceded that point with a gracious nod before continuing his argument.

"Even so, today is his graduation day, and despite the fact that it won't matter too much if he is late because I sanctioned this mission for him, it will not help him fit in with his comrades and teammates if he is seen to be getting special treatment from me." Despite her professional attitude, Yugao could not help but scoff at this statement "He has just completed an unofficial b-rank mission in capturing Mizuki, and yet a unranked unpaid mission is too far? Have you seen what the clan heirs have been being taught outside the normal curriculum both inside and outside the academy? If anything they are the ones you should be worried about in Naruto's graduating set."

Sarutobi knew that he had to concede the point once more, the Uchia had been considered the best thing since the yondaime by the civilian populace and some of the ninja, regardless of their opinion of the jutsu stealing clan before they were massacred by one of their own. And the other major clan heirs, who almost entirely were present in this one graduating class, were taught by their families to be able to protect themselves and their secrets from a young age. " Fine, I know what you mean. So then, we have to now decide how many hours of his service we can say he worked back tonight as you did technically enlist him in your investigation. Kami forbid that I let him use shadow clone hours as his own, he would be done with his punishment in a couple of days, and despite how harsh it has turned out too be from what you have told me he is coping okay thus far and it will be a good lesson for him in the future." With this statement, the two shinobi sat to negotiate further on the specifics of the agreement that had been done that day. What they did not know, was that at the same time in the slums of Konoha, another meeting was taking place, with the object of their discussion being an unwilling participant...


	8. The meeting of the minds and cold feet

Chapter 8: The meeting of the minds and cold feet

_Previously on Naruto, the Deception gone awry:_

_Sarutobi knew that he had to concede the point once more, the Uchia had been considered the best thing since the yondaime by the civilian populace and some of the ninja, regardless of their opinion of the jutsu stealing clan before they were massacred by one of their own. And the other major clan heirs, who almost entirely were present in this one graduating class, were taught by their families to be able to protect themselves and their secrets from a young age. " Fine, I know what you mean. So then, we have to now decide how many hours of his service we can say he worked back tonight as you did technically enlist him in your investigation. Kami forbid that I let him use shadow clone hours as his own, he would be done with his punishment in a couple of days, and despite how harsh it has turned out too be from what you have told me he is coping okay thus far and it will be a good lesson for him in the future." With this statement, the two shinobi sat to negotiate further on the specifics of the agreement that had been done that day. What they did not know, was that at the same time in the slums of Konoha, another meeting was taking place, with the object of their discussion being an unwilling participant..._

Location: Naruto's apartment, the slums.

Point of view: Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto was usually surprisingly bad at getting up when woken before he was ready for it, but returning to consciousness with a sword blade to your throat has a very awakening effect. Doing his best not to move in what could be in anyway remotely considered a threatening manner, he opened his eyes, shifting his vision to look over at the cloaked figure that was holding their katana to presumably pacify him. He spoke quietly, so as not to startle the intruder into acting rashly. " You know, if you are going to kill me, you could at least have let me sleep through it." He grinned at his own dark humour, his sleepy mind not registering that aggravating someone who has you at sword point was probably an in advisable move. To his surprise, the figure spoke back to him, in an obviously female tone. "To kill you was not the purpose of my visit Naruto-San, I merely wished to ensure that you did not over react to my presence upon waking and this seemed the most logical way for me to do that. After all, it would be hard for me to hold a proper discussion with you whilst trying to battle off hordes of your clones."

There was no humour, sarcasm or anything in the girls tone, though Naruto was still tempted to take her last comment as a joke and chuckle to it accordingly. She spoke blandly without a hint of emotion in her voice, leading Naruto to shake off his attempts at humour and instead go for the no nonsense approach in trying to negotiate with the girl, well as no nonsense as he could be. "So you are here to talk to me rather than attack me? If I promise to sit quietly and listen to what you say, will that be sufficient compliance from me to ensure that you remove your 'negotiation equipment' from its current resting place?" Nothing, not even a twitch, he was going to have to work a lot harder to elicit a reaction by the looks of it. After a moments pause she spoke once more, lifting her blade to rest against her shoulder as she stepped back from the bed. "That is acceptable as a deal Naruto-san, so if you would sit up and make yourself comfortable, I can begin." Deciding not to keep her waiting, he sat up, watching her closely.

It was at this point that he affirmed to himself that this was the same person who he had spent the evening chasing, and voiced this in order to be sure. "Are you the person who was spying on me earlier this evening? I think you are but just wanted to be sure." She nodded once " that is correct, and is actually part of the discussion that I wished to have with you. I work for part of an organisation, and we take a vested interest in ensuring that Konoha continues to prosper and grow strong. As you know of your tenant now, you will be able to understand why we have been keeping our eye on you all these years, doing our best to help you from the shadows when nobody else would." as she said this, Naruto's mind was cast back to his younger years, when those who would try and chase him or hurt him were either distracted, incapacitated or otherwise stopped from getting to him, well before his supposed 'carers' even tried to intervene.

He had always thought that it was Yugao or one of her ANBU that had been protecting him, but she had claimed no knowledge of it occurring, adding weight to the cloaked girls claim. Seeing that he was not going to speak again, the girl started speaking once more in the same monotone that she had used since the start of this rather odd interaction. "We also know of what you have been doing since the incident with the traitor Mizuki, your little addition to Konoha's populous was very cleverly done, even though with your childish goals for this you have not realised what you have uncovered with this move." that worried Naruto, after all, if these people knew of what he had been doing when even the Hokage had been kept in the dark, he wondered what other information they would be able to get hold of if they wished.

Obviously sensing his anxiety, the girl help up her hand in a placating gesture. "Calm yourself Uzumaki-San, your secret is safe with us, as I said, we see uses for what you have done even if you have not yet realised them for yourself. After all, consider it this way. You have just managed to infiltrate someone into the greatest and supposedly strongest village in the elemental nations, have gotten them into close proximity of one of the villages greatest assets, namely you, and no one has raised an eyebrow at it, meaning that if she was a proper infiltrator, she could carry out her espionage and sabotage operations without initial worry about being detected at all." Okay, he definitely had not thought of it that way when he came up with his initial plan to wow Sakura with his dating skills. When it was put like that, it did highlight how lax security in Konoha had gotten, especially as he had had no training in the subject at all. This did raise a pertinent question however, that he felt needed to be answered now. "But why are you interested in this, from what you have told me and with my experience of the chase earlier this evening, you are definitely not part of Konoha's official forces and that you do not report to the Hokage, so why would this security lapse worry you?"

That got a reaction from her, as her hands tightened into fists and when she spoke there was a hint of anger in her tone, the first emotion he had heard or seen expressed in the whole conversation. "Think what you will, but I assure you that you will find none in Konoha more devoted to the village than us!" this time it was Naruto who was doing the pacifying, he asks an honest question and nearly gets his head taken off for it. "Okay, I believe you lady, no need to get angry now. I was just wondering what this had to do with me then? It's not like I can change the security of Konoha. Why don't you just bring it up with the Hokage?"

She sighed to herself, shaking her head in the same way that one would do so when looking at a five year old who has been hopelessly naive, and Naruto got the feeling that what he had just said was a pretty silly thing to say somehow. "If only it were so easy for us to address the issue then we would not need to involve you in the slightest. The reason we need you is that the Hokage does not view us in the best light, due to the different ways that we think that Konoha should be protected from forces both internal and external. The use for your plan that we have seen, and would like for you to carry out, is to simply keep the ruse going until the end of the year, regardless of whether or not the plan succeeds, as this is the length of time usually given for a deep cover operative to complete their mission. Then, we shall present the evidence to the Hokage, which should hopefully be enough to force him to take preventative action against future possible attempts at infiltrations."

Naruto thought for a moment before nodding in agreement to the suggestion. "I can do that, I was planning on keeping her around for a while regardless as it would not be good for her to just suddenly disappear, people would just claim that I had killed her and hidden the body." not the sort of accusation he wished to particularly face a biased civilian court over. Another question popped into his head as the girl shrugged in a non-committal fashion to his previous statement. "If you and I are going to effectively be partners on this, as I imagine the fewer of you I know about the less risk for the both of us, how am I meant to contact you with updates and stuff?" she shrugged once more, stepping back further into the shadows of his room before replying. "Really Uzumaki-san? You should know by now that it's when I contact you we meet, you trying to arrange it will just end badly... Until next time." And with that she was gone into the darkness, silence pervading the room and unnerving Naruto slightly even as he cursed silently about useless traps that seemed incapable of deterring anyone from entering his apartment whenever they wished.

Time: 7:45 am

Location: Naruto's apartment

He woke up early the next morning, his mind troubled now by the events of the previous day. First he gets in a huge amount of trouble with the Hokage, then he gets held a sword point by someone who he had spent the evening chasing round Konoha, before effectively agreeing to deceive the entire population of Konoha for almost 4 months in partnership with an obviously covert organisation that did not work for the Hokage. He was fairly certain that most if not all of that would be classed as treasonable on some level or another. But there was not a lot that he could do about it now, and he had to be ready should Yugao agree to his request to go and have a look at the site where Umi was attacked yesterday, in the hope that he would be able to discover something towards the outcome of the attack.

This would be helpful towards his original plan, the one he had devised initially before all these complications got added to it, as if he did find something Umi could then come and thank him at the end of the academy today, which would be a good way to introduce her to the rest of the class so that they wouldn't find it weird when she just appeared as they started dating. After thinking on his problem for another ten minutes, he finally decided the best he could do was to go along with the plan as it was for now, and that if the scary girl appeared again and asked him something unreasonable, he would throw himself at Yugao's mercy and explain everything to her then.

This line of thought made one last glaring consequence of yesterday spring into his head and he sighed dejectedly as he thought it through and came to a conclusion. He was going to have to send some clones to the library of all things. Naruto really didn't like the library, he was much more of a 'get out and do it person', but considering his currently self designed traps weren't cutting it in the slightest, he was evidently going to have to up his game somewhat in order to try and reduce the number of intruders that he received every night. Before he could think upon the matter any further, there were four loud but rhythmic knocks at the door, making him curse quietly for getting distracted and not creating some clones to go off to the library when he first thought of them.

Thinking quickly he called up his chakra whilst he grabbed some food. Half a dozen clones burst into existence, one running off to the door whilst the others transformed into various animals and left through cracks in walls or through windows, making sure to stay out of sight. He heard his clone open the door as he was halfway through his last cookie. "Hi Yugao-chan, the boss won't be a minute, he's just finishing breakfast. Are you here about our request, or is Jiji going to try and steal even more of our money?" there was silence for a moment before a proofing sound and Yugao's voice calling into the flat. "Naruto-San, what have I told you? You really need to improve your manners now that you are a ninja. And you shouldn't be mad with the Hokage, it was you that hid your money troubles from him after all, so he wasn't to know." Naruto rushed to the entrance as she continued speaking, appearing at the door as she spoke once more. "And in regards to your request, the Hokage has approved for you to do an unranked mission to investigate the caravan attack site, though he has insisted you be back by noon, so that you are not late for your graduation at 2." graduation? That had not entered Naruto's mind with all the work he had been doing over the last week, was that really today?

Shaking off his confusion as to where all the time had gone, he instead grinned apologetically at Yugao. "Sorry Yugao-chan, the clones are a bit rowdy at the best of times. Also, I apologise, you have been doing a lot of things for me over the last 24 hours, I will make it up to you I promise." he then thought about what she had said a little more. "So it's just me then? Or are you sending along someone to keep an eye on me?" Yugao's face softened slightly at this and she reached forward to ruffle his hair slightly. "Not with you as such, I will be at taking you to the western gate where we will meet the chuunin due to patrol the area where the attack took place, she will lead you there, then continue her patrol of the area whilst you search. She will in effect be in charge of you during this time, so show her proper respect and report anything you find to her during or at the end of the search. Now are you ready to go?" he nodded eagerly, grabbing her shoulder as she went through a string of handseals, and then in a burst of speed they were gone.

Arriving at the gate, Naruto found a tall thin young woman with long black hair and a chuunins flak jacket on over typical ninja fatigues that fitted her loosely enough to allow for free movement but not too loose as to become a liability in a taijutsu battle. "Naruto, this is Himako, she will be your effective leader and point of contact on this mission, here is a personal radio for each of you to keep in touch with each other with, I must be getting back to my duties now." handing each of them a headset, she disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving the two of them alone. Himako's smile was one of the most fake that Naruto had ever seen, she was obviously not happy with him in the slightest, though whether that was because he was forcing her to do extra work on her patrol, or whether it was to do with what he contained, he couldn't be quite sure, and didn't really want to find out. He bowed deferentially, before properly introducing himself. "Hello Himako-taichou, thank you for helping me with this, I won't be any trouble I promise."

Himako snorted and a thin smirk covered her face as she looked at him once more. "That's what we all thought when you graduated at last, it took me hours to get all the glue and feathers out of my hair, and that uniform still has splashes of orange on it." Ahh, so that's why she didn't particularly like him right now, another consequence of his little plan that he hadn't thought of before enacted it. Reflexively he reached back with his left hand and scratched the back of his head whilst grinning in what he hoped looked like an apologetic manner. "Gomen, Himako-taichou, I imagine you aren't the only one annoyed at me for that one, I just needed to blow off some steam after being told something really bad, and at least I made sure the glue was water soluble?" She looked thoughtful at this and Naruto expected she assumed that he had been told about being the container of the kyuubi. She spoke after a moment, her tone a lot less accusatory this time. "Well, if the news was what I think it was, I can't blame you for being upset with a lot of us. Besides, from what I hear, you received more than a big enough punishment. So, I will put it behind me, and make sure that the others know why you did it if you behave yourself this morning and listen to the orders that I give you."

Naruto nodded rapidly, if it stopped her being so passively aggressive towards to him, then that was not a bad deal in the slightest. With this affirmation, she turned away and walked out the gate, nodding at the guards as she passed them, neither of them Naruto recognised, but he followed quickly as she broke into jog down the road, before jumping into the trees on the left hand side of the road a moment later, Naruto cursing at the increase in pace before jumping after her as quickly as he could. Forty agonising minutes later, Naruto dropped from the trees to the side of the road, his face red and his breath ragged and shallow. Himako dropped from where she had stopped and grinned not a little vindictively at him. "You need to work a lot on your speed Naruto-San, whilst acceptable for an academy student, as a genin you will be expected to be considerably faster than you are now." Naruto didn't respond for a minute apart from looking up at her like she was crazy. He had effectively just performed a forty minute sprint at his top speed, which would not have been possible if not for his insane stamina that he had gained as a container, and even that had been pushed to its absolute limit with that effort. Any of his classmates would have been left in the dirt long before now, so she was either a very harsh taskmaster and judge, or his graduation were well below par where it mattered.

Choosing not to get involved in what would be a pointless argument, Naruto instead managed to wheeze out what he considered to be a pertinent line of enquiry. "Is this the location of the attack?" her grin was a little unnerving as she replied. " this is about two thirds of the way to the destination, but you looked like you needed a break, we continue in ten seconds." his heart and face plummeted, another twenty minutes like that? There was no way he was going to survive that. " I was only joking Naruto-San, this is the location, we removed the burned out carts so that they did not affect people's willingness to travel this road. You really should have seen your face then." This had to be revenge for his prank, Naruto grumbled as he glared at the now giggling chuunin who was enjoying torturing him far far to much for his liking. After a few seconds she stopped giggling and straightened up. "But on a more serious note, the investigating chuunin found the burning wagons here, and a trail leading that way, to the west of here. The problem is that the trail vanishes after a half mile or so, as if the bandits just vanished into thin air, and despite searching the surrounding woodland, they were unable to find any further clues as to their location on passage. She paused for breath and looked him in the eye. "I don't know how you expect to do any better than they did with this, but I wish you the best of luck Naruto-San, I will be back in three hours to return you to Konoha, be ready by that time. If you need to report anything to me before then, I will set the radio Neko-taichou gave me to channel three and you can report it through that." and with that she was gone, back into the trees, leaving Naruto by himself to observe his surroundings.

To both sides of him were the famous Konoha woodlands, created by the Shodaime and maintained by Konoha to this day, as a natural defensive terrain that they flourished in fighting in. The trail was easy enough to spot, broken branches and disturbed foliage pointing the way for pursuit. Using the correct handseal, Naruto called on a good portion for his pretty much only useful technique. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" in an eruption of smoke over a hundred Kage bushin appeared around him. "Right, you guys know what you are doing, follow the trail until it disappears, then fan out, search areas in sections, no crossing over. The clones saluted then ran into the woods with a cheer, they would find something, there were too many of them not to!


	9. The Discovery and Graduation Begins

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_After a few seconds she stopped giggling and straightened up. "But on a more serious note, the investigating chuunin found the burning wagons here, and a trail leading that way, to the west of here. The problem is that the trail vanishes after a half mile or so, as if the bandits just vanished into thin air, and despite searching the surrounding woodland, they were unable to find any further clues as to their location on passage. She paused for breath and looked him in the eye. "I don't know how you expect to do any better than they did with this, but I wish you the best of luck Naruto-San, I will be back in three hours to return you to Konoha, be ready by that time. If you need to report anything to me before then, I will set the radio Neko-taichou gave me to channel three and you can report it through that." and with that she was gone, back into the trees, leaving Naruto by himself to observe his surroundings._

_To both sides of him were the famous Konoha woodlands, created by the Shodaime and maintained by Konoha to this day, as a natural defensive terrain that they flourished in fighting in. The trail was easy enough to spot, broken branches and disturbed foliage pointing the way for pursuit. Using the correct handseal, Naruto called on a good portion for his pretty much only useful technique. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" in an eruption of smoke over a hundred Kage bushin appeared around him. "Right, you guys know what you are doing, follow the trail until it disappears, then fan out, search areas in sections, no crossing over. The clones saluted then ran into the woods with a cheer, they would find something, there were too many of them not to!_

Chapter 9: The discovery and Graduation begins!

Half an hour later, Naruto was ready to scream in frustration at the lack of anything substantial discovered by his clones during their hunt. It was like Himako had said, the trail continued for almost a mile, before vanishing in the middle of a small clearing in the dense woodland. His clones had searched almost ten square miles around the area with nothing to show for it other than a new appreciation of the dangers of wasps to his clones when they were angered. In an attempt to take his mind off the problem, he walked down the road, kicking his feet against the ground as he tried to think of what he and his clones had missed, had the bandits backtracked after making the trail? Not likely, there would not have been enough time with Umi escaping as she did, and the hostages and loot were too heavy to lug around on such a plot. Kicking his left foot on the ground once more, Naruto took another step before his mind caught up with what his eyes had seen. Stopping, he looked back to make sure he hadn't been seeing things, but sure enough there it was, underneath the top levels of soil that he had just kicked off in his frustration was a dried but still red splash of blood on the soil, and not an insignificant one at that.

He created ten more clones to search the rest of this section of road whilst he thought about what he may have stumbled upon. Thinking back to what Himako had said, they had found the burning wagons where she had dropped him off, but Umi distinctly remembered two of the caravan guards being killed before she fled the attack site, so there surely would have been bodies and blood at the sight, but Himako hadn't mentioned anything and neither had Naruto seen any. The clones had quickly uncovered several more large pools of dried blood under the top layers of soil and dirt, which meant that this had to be where the attack took place, not where the wagons had been found. He activated his earpiece, which effectively connected him to every clone that was within range, speaking slowly and angrily. "Boys, head back to the road, I think that these bandits have pulled the wool over our eyes, and I really don't like when that happens." He removed his finger, the clones not replying to his statement but undoubtedly listening to him, and then he sat at the side of the road, the ten clones beginning to search both sides of the road and being steadily reinforced by clones arriving from the failed search to the North.

Settling himself in, he began to think in an attempt to work out how the bandits had pulled off the raid. The idea that the bandits, after having captured the caravan and it's occupants, decided to move the caravans away from the attack site did not take long to occur to him, but why move it if you can vanish your trail whenever you like, surely it was more trouble than it is worth. A cough from in front of him brought him back to reality and opening his eyes he found a clone looking down at him, face serious and eyes ablaze. "Boss, you are going to need to take a look at this yourself." Jumping up, he followed his clone quietly into the woodlands to the south east of the new attack site. They had gone almost 400 yards before the smell of death hit him, and breaking the foliage in front of him, the clone revealed a pile of corpses, more than a dozen at least, stripped of anything valuable, including weapons, jewellery and earrings that looked like they were torn out with no respect for the dead whatsoever.

"Half of them seem to be guards, killed during the fighting, though the others make no sense, the one on tops an old woman, she can't have been fighting them." The clone was obviously suffering from shock as he stared at the scene, the other clones in the vicinity steering well clear of the clearing in their search for anything else that might prove useful in the hunt for those that did this. Looking at the old woman more closely, Naruto realised something from the looks of her wounds. "She wasn't killed during the fighting, she was killed after it had all finished, her throat slit from behind. The bandits must have thought she was worthless as a captive, or that she would slow them down in their withdrawal." With such a morbid thought, Naruto decided that he was out of his depth now and definitely had something that counted as worth reporting to Himako.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the radio that Yugao had given him before he had left Konoha. Turning it on, he twisted the dial on the front so that the arrows point on it pointed at the kanji for the number 3. Pressing the activation button on it, he spoke somewhat hesitantly into the set as he desperately tried to remember what the academy had told him about the terms and other semantics that were associated with radio communication. "Himako-taichou, this is Naruto, can you read me over?" there was an audible sigh before he got an actual verbal response. "This is Himako, I read you loud and clear. Have you decided to give up on your little tracking exercise over?" He had to try very hard not to get angry at the derision in her statement, instead concentrating on relaying the information he had across to her. "No, in fact, I have found evidence that the attack site you dropped me off at is in fact a decoy, I have a pile of bodies to prove it."

There was a moments pause before Himako replied once more, this time shock evident in her tone. "Are you sure? Of course you are, ignore that. I am on my way to the original site now, I shan't be more than ten minutes. Have a clone meet me there and lead me to where you are now. Any signs of a trail from your position away from the road?" A clone, that had evidently been listening in to the conversation, raised his head so he was visible over the foliage and pointed further south east before gesturing uncertainly with his hands. Reading the gesture as best as he could, Naruto replied. "my clones think they have found some away to the south east, though with all the animal tracks to and from the bodies, it's is not easy to be sure. I will have them spread out and look in that direction." "Understood, I am inbound now. And Naruto-San, well done with this discovery, Himako-chan over and out." he felt a welling of pride at the praise, but it drained out of him as he looked into the old woman's dead eyes.

Turning away, he leapt back into the trees, communicating the plan to his clones once more. Landing on the road once more, he began to piece together what had actually happened the day before. Bandits had attacked from where he now was, removing the captives and loot once they had pacified the guards. Then they had split up, some taking the wagons and heading up the road before burning them, some working to disguise the signs of the engagement that had taken place, and others leading away the captives and carrying the loot and bodies. This was no small bandit group carrying out these attacks, the strategy itself was complex enough to make Naruto think that rogue samurai were probably involved in some way. The radio buzzed to life with news that the clones had established an actual trail that lined up with what he had deduced to be the size of the bandit force, and he told them to follow it, being wary of traps and other deceptions, if the group were this organised they would leave little to chance.

True enough, by the time that Himako had arrived at the decoy site, more than a dozen clones had fallen to traps laid on the trail. She walked over to him, seriousness written all across her face. "Report, I want to see this evidence before I report it in and ask for back up." a thought struck Naruto at this point, what if the bandits, instead of passing as had been thought to the west, and then disappearing into thin air, had made that trail before the caravan had arrived, and then attacking and moving the caravans forward to that point. To do so would not only require knowledge of what caravans were using which roads, but also the rota of Konoha patrols in the region, in order to not get caught unawares whilst creating the trail. For such a case to be true, that would imply.. He shivered at the thought, before starting to speak. "Before we do that, how long before the attack would you say that someone patrolled this section of road?" she looked at him confusedly "No more than an hour or two, why is that important?"

With that piece of information, Naruto laid out what he had found, leading her down the road to where the blood was, and his theory about the fake trail. That implication brought her to a halt as she looked at him disbelievingly "Are you implying there is someone in Konoha that is passing information about the caravans to the bandits? That's quite an accusation to be making there Naruto." She looked round the clearing with the bodies once more before sighing. "But what you have found certainly points a finger that way. If that's the case then I will wait until we have investigated a little further before I call it in." Then it looked like something occurred to her and a grin worked its way onto her face. "Assuming that the bandits aren't too far away from us, then your going to be late for your graduation I'm afraid Naruto-San." he looked at her, what she was talking about? "What do you mean Himako-taichou? I thought we were just going to do a bit more investigating before we head back?" she looked at him like he was stupid. "You serious? If we come across them and think we can handle them, we are definitely not risking the possibility of you being right and a leak in Konoha warning them off. Stick with me kid, and I will make a hero of you yet."

Chapter break

Time skip: one hour

Screw being a hero, Naruto thought, if it weren't for the fact that they currently perched outside what seemed to be the entrance of the bandit base, he would have called it quits and told Himako to call reinforcements a while ago. The girl seemed to have forgotten about his supposedly subpar speed, and as such when they had discovered an easily followable position about half a mile from the clearing, where Naruto had left thirty clones to dig some graves for the poor victims, she had sped off like nothing else. He had very quickly ordered his clones to disperse, they were just hampering his attempts at trying to keep up. The only advantage of the situation was that he managed to finally finish a move that he had been working on, which utilised bursts of chakra to his leg muscles to boost his speed, and though it took a few rather catastrophic attempts, he managed to iron out the technique enough to catch Himako who had slowed to let him catch up once more. He had no idea where they were, other than the fact they were now deep into the wild lands of Konoha, thick woodlands which were prowled by predators that could even make a shinobi give pause if caught by surprise. The bandit base seemed to be built to keep those creatures out, depending on its location to prevent it being found by anyone else with a palisade wall surrounding it, a single entrance which had two very bored guards, and four ramshackle guard towers that served as the limits of the fortifications.

Whilst Himako had scouted the perimeter, he had used a tactic he had discovered the week before. When humans transformed into other things, they maintained their original weight, which was a disadvantage when say one pretended to be a kunai or a cat. As shadow clones were made of chakra, they could actually manipulate their weight to whatever they wished. Therefore, the henged clones that were disguised as birds could actually fly, allowing Naruto to scout the inside of the base from the air using them, and several clones disguised as mice covered the ground.

He discovered that there were about forty bandits up and about, either drinking, eating or otherwise lazing around whilst be waited upon by almost two dozen ragged individuals which had to be the ones that they had captured from the caravan. There were another 60 or so bandits sleeping either in the tents that littered the clearing, or inside the natural cave formation that probably also contained their leader. Upon her return, Himako had come to the same conclusion he had when he had told him what he had discovered, that they needed back up regardless of the risk of a traitor in their ranks, taking on that many bandits with hostages was suicide.

Himako leapt back into the trees to call in their find, as well as to try and work out their exact coordinates on the map she had with. Meanwhile Naruto decided to leap round through the trees to the southwestern guard tower, which he had noted was currently unoccupied through the use of his clones. Leaping up into the tower, he looked down into the camp physically for the first time. His clones vision had been fairly accurate, if a little limited in terms of from the perspectives that they had taken the views from. The mental picture of the camp that he had built up using their information had not be correct in terms of the rise up to the cave formation that he had not noticed in either form, and the heights of all the tents and other things had been slightly off.

Suddenly, he was distracted from his thoughts by a female scream from one of the tents not too far from his position, and a moment later a large burly semi naked bandit, with an eyepatch over one eye and a black beard stormed out of a tent facing Naruto, grasping the hair of a girl who could not have been more than thirteen by the hair, her ragged clothes ripped down the front. What caught Naruto's attention more than anything else was the bloody wound in the bandits shoulder even as he threw the girl to the floor in front of him. One of the bandits that had been lounging by a fire a few metres from the scene called over to the injured bandit with obvious humour. "This one giving you trouble then? That's another scar you can pretend to have gained on the battlefield!" There were bursts of laughter around the camp even as the large bandit turned red. "I just wanted a piece of something before the boss moves them on up to the meeting point, and then just as I was about to start, the girl up and stabs me!"

The girl forced herself to her feet, spitting at the bandits foot before readying the small knife she had in her hand once more. "that was for baa-chan you bastard, next time I will get your black heart instead of your shoulder." with that she charged forwards, swinging the knife with such lack of skill that Naruto couldn't help but wince at. The bandit dodged the blow with a growl, batting the girl away with a crack, looming over her as she gasped into the earth, drawing a deadly looking axe. "Well, you will serve as the example not to mess with us then, and I will make sure to go after your sister right afterwards!" Naruto didn't consciously remember moving at all, one second he was watching in horror, the next second he was rocketing into the camp, his fist making a heavy impact with the bandits face, sending him to the floor even as Naruto grabbed the axe from his surprised hands. Straightening up from his move and collecting his thoughts, Naruto looked round nervously as the other bandits jumped to their feet warily, drawing their assortment of weapons.

He realised the disadvantage of his position, essentially alone against almost 100 bandits, with 30 captives to protect and only half a dozen disguised clones that were currently undetected in a position to protect them. In addition, he hadn't filled his weapon pouch when he had woken up that morning, so he only had three kunai and six shuriken in addition to the bloody great big axe that he had just appropriated from the fallen bandit. Deciding to use a bit of bravado in an attempt to bolster his faltering confidence, he grinned and stepped forward, speaking loudly in what he hoped was a confident tone. "greetings, please find yourselves under arrest for murder, theft and slavery. By the law of the fire daimyo, I do hope you plan on coming peacefully." After a few moments one of the bandits burst out laughing, many of the others joining in, the one that started eventually recovering enough to wheeze out his question. "that's funny kid, real funny. You plan on arresting us? You and what army?" at that comment, Naruto couldn't help but grin, even as he whacked the downed bandit over the head with the haft of the axe as he tried to stand, knocking him out properly this time before hefting the axe to rest on his shoulder, freeing his hands to form a single hand sign, many of the bandits stiffening as he did so. "well, as you asked for it, I was thinking this one would suffice." And then in a cloud of chakra smoke, all hell broke loose in the fortified encampment.

Point of view: Iruka Umino, chuunin of Konoha

Naruto was twenty minutes late for the actual team sensei meeting, and more than an hour late for the academy graduation in general, Iruka thought wryly. At this rate he would be later than his assigned teacher, and though Iruka loathed Kakashi's lateness as much as the next ninja, he didn't want Naruto to give the man a reason to fail his team before his infamous test tomorrow, though he had doubts over whether the team the Hokage had put together would have any hope of passing the copy nins infamous bell test.

He remembered back to when he had been assigning the teams more than an hour ago, and when he had named Naruto as part of team seven, Sakura had spoken up in a confused and slightly angry tone. "But sensei, Naruto-Baka failed the test to graduate as a ninja, so why have you called his name out, especially as he isn't here?" deciding to try and avoid the question about Narutos location, he had instead chosen to divulge the truth in somewhat brief terms about Narutos graduation, including him beating Mizuki, though he left out how he had done so. By the end of the tale the class was silent, several of them looking very impressed with Narutos work, but the Uchiha had just scoffed and stated that Mizuki could not have been very strong if the dobe had managed to have beaten him. Iruka ignored the jab at his own skills with that comment, and had replied that Mizuki had beaten the Uchiha round the Taijutsu ring when the Uchiha had challenged him to a no holds barred contest as a challenge, so maybe that made Naruto stronger than the Uchiha in that case.

The Uchiha's fuming face still brought a grin to his face, as the third sensei, the beautiful Yuuhi Kurenai, came to collect team eight, comprising of the Inuzuka, Hyuuga and Abrurame clans heirs. Her collection was interrupted however, by a flurry of leaves that inferred a leaf shushin technique at the front of the room, a couple of feet from him in fact. From the flurry appeared two figures, one of which he instantly recognised as his classmate Himako, who looked a little roughed up but otherwise okay. It took him another moment to recognise the other figure, who looked like he had been thrown through a meat grinder. Naruto's upper clothing was in tatters, his trademark jacket gone and his t-shirt only just capable of being considered wearable, though considering the blood covering it from top to bottom, similar to his trousers that were now a cross between red and orange, some of it Naruto's judging by the vast number of cuts grazes and other wounds that were visible on his upper body.

The boy quickly turned on the spot, and spotting him through the one eye that wasn't swollen shut, stood to attention and snapped off a very wobbly salute. "Iruka-sensei, sorry for being late to the graduation class, but believe me, I have one hell of an excuse..." Catching the amused and slightly resigned look on Himako's face, Iruka got the feeling that for once, Naruto was actually understating himself entirely.

**A/N: Terrible aren't I? Well it was either this or post another three thousand words I'm not happy with yet, so I think you all will be able to live another two or three days before finding out what has happened and how the fight went. Please review and tell me what you think, where you think the plots going and what about which characters you liked? I thought I had been a genius with some of my plot points but several people picked them up really quickly, I want to see whether this is the same across the breadth of my readers or not. But anyways, thanks for reading guys, until next time Ja Ne!**


	10. The Storytelling

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_The uchia's fuming face still brought a grin to his face, as the third sensei, the beautiful Yuuhi Kurenai, came to collect team eight, comprising of the Inuzuka, Hyuuga and Abrurame clans heirs. Her collection was interrupted however, by a flurry of leaves that inferred a leaf shushin technique at the front of the room, a couple of feet from him in fact. From the flurry appeared two figures, one of which he instantly recognised as his class mate Himako, who looked a little roughed up but otherwise okay. It took him another moment to recognise the other figure, who looked like he had been thrown through a meat grinder. Naruto's upper clothing was in tatters, his trade mark jacket gone and his t-shirt only just capable of being considered wearable, though considering the blood covering it from top to bottom, similar to his trousers that were now a cross between red and orange, some of it Naruto's judging by the vast number of cuts grazes and other wounds that were visible on his upper body._

_The boy quickly turned on the spot, and spotting him through the one eye that wasn't swollen shut, stood to attention and snapped off a salute. "Iruka-sensei, sorry for being late to the graduation class, but believe me, I have one hell of an excuse..." Catching the amused and slightly resigned look on Himako's face, Iruka got the feeling that for once, Naruto was actually understating himself entirely._

Chapter 10: The Storytelling

Naruto felt like crap, even more than he had been thus far today, and it wasn't just because he had been having to keep up with Himako again, though that had certainly not helped in the slightest. He had just raced back to Konoha after the fight of his life, only to wait for an hour for his sensei, some weirdo jounin by the name of Kakashi Hatake. One advantage of the team he was in was that he had Sakura on his team, which would help progress project shadow considerably, if everything went according to plan of course. Despite the joy he felt at this revelation, Naruto was honestly too tired to be able to try and talk to her, instead collapsing semi comatose in one of the middle rows whilst trying to regain some of his energy. It had worked to an extent, so that by the time Kakashi had finally deigned them with his presence Naruto had regained at least a fraction of his usual functionality, even if every movement hurt.

After exclaiming at the top of his voice in an angry tone that Kakashi was a crap sensei for being late, and forcing him to sprint back to Konoha for no good reason, the man had simply turned around and stated that he hated all of them, and that they should meet him on the roof for introductions. Deciding to save himself some effort, Naruto decided instead of using the stairs to utilise his new chakra leaping technique to launch himself up to the roof with the aid of a clone to push off against. Whilst he had obviously surprised the man with the manoeuvre, the man had not commented and simply had waited for the other two arrive whilst reading his orange book and giggling on occasion.

Once they had arrived, showing their own surprise at the sight of Naruto being up on the roof before them, they had then indulged in the most pointless exercise Naruto had ever heard of. Kakashi had asked them all to introduce themselves and tell everyone a little about each other, though when asked to show them what he had meant, he had been vague and not told them anything about him. Having been chosen to go next and still feeling somewhat snarky at the jounins late arrival, Naruto had decided to copy his sensei word for word, apart from changing his name of course.

This had surprisingly got a smirk from Sasuke and a giggle from Sakura, whilst Kakashi's single visible eye had narrowed at what Naruto had done. The other two hadn't followed suit however, and the only thing that Naruto learned from the exchange was that Sasuke had someone that he wished to kill, though did not elaborate who that was. Naruto assumed it was his older brother, the one who had massacred the rest of the Uchia clan in a single night, leaving only Sasuke alive, but he would be certain to make sure later, rather than get it wrong and screw up badly. After that, Kakashi had informed them that they hadn't actually truly graduated yet, and that they first had to pass survival training, which would be held tomorrow morning on training ground seven at seven am. He then informed them not to eat breakfast lest they throw up, before bidding them farewell and disappearing in a shushin, off to read his book no doubt.

So here he was, sat on rooftop having been told to attend survival training, with no idea of what to expect. Falling back on what seemed to have become his tactic for acquiring information, he summoned two dozen clones onto the rooftop, bringing them into huddle. "Right, I want you all to spread yourselves across Konoha, transformed into people we know about, so guards, other chuunin and such to try and find out everything you can about Kakashi and this survival test of his. You!" he declared pointing at one whilst the others nodded. "Go make sure Akko and Yuna have got through admin okay, then bring them to Ichikarus, tell Ayame to put their food on my tab, I will go get Umi and meet them there." the clones all chorused agreement, and then dispersed themselves, their forms shifting as they moved into various people, making sure to confer with each other to ensure no one duplicated another. Grinning at what was another clever plan of his, Naruto turned to leave, only to find both of his team mates staring at him in complete shock.

It was Sakura who managed to regain the ability to speak first, though it was clear that she was still shocked by something. "Naruto, are those... Solid clones?" Ahh, that was why they were confused, shadow clones had become so natural to Naruto that he had forgotten that it was not considered the norm anymore. Reaching up and scratching the back of his head, he thought up the best way to respond to her question. An idea popped into his head based on what he had just finished saying to his clone. "They are Sakura-chan, shadow clones to be exact. I learnt them the same night I graduated. I would tell you about it, but i've got to go and pick someone up for dinner, I will tell it all to you there if you wish, I'm sure that Umi wouldn't mind hearing about it, she's already in for one hell of a tale as it is." Hook, line and sinker, or at least that's what Naruto thought the phrase was. He could tell Sakura was more than interested enough to be turning up later, Sasuke was much harder to read, but he wasn't nearly as important, so it didn't matter too much to Naruto whether he was interested.

Speaking of Umi, he had better get going, he hadn't told his clone where he had been going today, so it had probably had a very boring, very lonely day. Which is why it was important to inform it of the news, though he might leave the bit about the two sisters he had rescued for when they appeared, that certainly would get him forgiven for disappearing for most of the day. Raising his hand, he waved farewell to the two. "Right, i might see you both later, and if I don't I will see you tomorrow morning for Baka-sensei's test. Bye!" He barely made it to the lip of the roof before Sakura called out to him once more. "Naruto, wait up, I'll come with you, we just need to stop by mine, so that I can tell my parents that I am eating out tonight and not to wait for me." That wasn't the worst thing in the world Naruto supposed, Sakura's was pretty much on the way to his, so it wouldn't be much of a delay. Turning to Sasuke, he spoke quickly, just so that when he started again he wouldn't have to stop once more.

"You going to come along teme?" the boy seemed to war with himself for a moment before finally shaking his head. "I bet you can't have done anything that interesting to be worth wasting my evening training, see you tomorrow dobe." Well, at least he could say that he had tried if anyone asked where the third member of his team was. Shrugging to himself, he turned back to Sakura and grinned lightly at her. One of the things that his clones discovered whilst watching all the various girls, was that they really disliked boys that tried too hard, as he had done with Sakura previously in the academy.

As such he toned it down as best he could, speaking normally rather than shouting as he felt prone to doing at times. "Well, I did my best Sakura-chan, I'm afraid it's just us and the other girls, though I'm sure that you will get along with them just fine." Sakura smiled, obviously pleased that he hadn't tried to claim that this was a date or something similar. They leapt off in the direction of Sakura's, and it was actually Sakura that spoke first as they travelled off together. "So Naruto, how exactly is it that you know where I live, I saw you jump off first, so you can't claim you were following me." Ahh, he knew that his clones would land him in trouble sooner or later, now he had to think of an excuse very quickly to save himself a beating.

They reached his apartment thankfully without him gaining even more bruises than he already had on him. He had remembered just in time that when they were younger he had walked her home from the academy, only to ruin it by doing something stupid that had left Sakura fuming on her doorstep as he ran for his life. Recalling the occasion out loud, it had mollified Sakura sufficiently that she dropped the conversation without further comment, the two continuing to Sakura's house in companionable silence. Naruto had waited on the rooftops whilst Sakura had entered her house, preferring to avoid the confrontation that was bound to happen if he showed his face around Sakuras house again whilst her parents were around. Once Sakura had reappeared, they had continued to the slums where Naruto lived, Sakura obviously being surprised that Naruto lived in such an area, but thankfully refraining from commenting on it to him. That brought them to where they were now, knocking on the door that Umi had selected that she wanted to live in, a floor above Narutos but in the middle of the set of flats, just like Narutos was.

After a few seconds the door opened and Umi appeared, looking a little flustered and dust covered, but otherwise happy. That changed when she saw Naruto, swinging open the door and rushing towards him. "Naruto-San, what happened to you? You look like you were attacked by a tiger!" Naruto chuckled embarrassed as he batted her hands away from him. "It's fine Umi-chan, I will tell you over dinner. Oh by the way, Sakura-chan, this is Umi-chan, saviour of my pour hide and a friend as of yesterday! Umi-chan, meet Sakura, my teammate subject to us passing our test tomorrow of course." Umi giggled at his over the top introduction, whilst Sakura merely shook her head and smiled at him before asking a question. "You only met yesterday? You two seem fast friends for such a short period, how did you both meet? Did Naruto get you with that childish prank of his or something?" and thus the three of them spent the rest of the trip to Ichikarus recounting the tale of Umi's tumultuous arrival in Konoha and Naruto's involvement in it all.

Sakura listened attentively, gasping at the description of the bandit attack and giggling at the description of Naruto's taunting of the chuunin. She cast a surprised look at Naruto when Umi described how he had been keeping an eye on her and rescued her wallet from the pickpocket. "I'm impressed Naruto, with how you've always acted I assumed you were a bit careless about things, but you actually showed a surprising amount of thought for your actions there." Naruto chuckled embarrassedly once more, how incorrect that idea was. "Not really Sakura-chan, in fact, if not for Umi-chans generosity here, I would currently be on the streets, which is why technically until i pay her back her money, she's technically my landlord!" Before Sakura could ask for clarification on what he meant about any of that, they were interrupted by two blurs of motion that slammed into Naruto, almost knocking him off his feet.

He had just managed to brace himself however, and after rocking for a moment, he hugged the two girls that had jumped him. "Akko-chan, Yuna-chan, don't do that, if I hadn't seen you coming, we could all have gone flying and my bruises would get even bigger than they are now!" the two girls, two years younger than Naruto, giggled at this before stepping back and attempting to look contrite. "Sorry Naruto-kun, we were just so happy to see you, the scary lady you left us with wasn't much fun, and the blonde guy made our heads feel funny." Naruto now understood what the purple haired lady had meant when she had said that the two would be okay by the time he saw them again, the blonde man had obviously been a Yamanaka and as such had probably removed the memories of Akko's almost rape, and just left the ones of Naruto rescuing them from captivity. Just as Naruto was about to apologise, Umi called out in shock "Akko, Yuna, but how?" she was looking between the two girls and Naruto for an exclamation even as the two girls recognised her and ran over to her to hug her as well. Sakura was obviously the most confused and was rather vocal about it. "Naruto I think we all need an explanation now, and I imagine that it is going to take a while, is this the place you were meaning for food?" she said pointing at Ichikarus in front of them, where the two girls had just come from. Naruto nodded and smiled at all of them "indeed it is, and as I have obviously confused you all, it's on me whilst I explain, now, let's eat!"

Forty minutes later, he had gathered a small crowd, including some of the stands regulars, Ayame and the other four girls, and even one or two people from the street as he told the tale of how he had been tricked by Mizuki into stealing the forbidden scroll, and how he and Iruka had fought him afterwards to stop him killing them and stealing the forbidden scroll for whatever nefarious purpose. There had been gasps, laughs and shocked silences as he had told his tale, doing his utmost to ensure he was keeping it honest, apart from the bit about the fox and him being its container of course, that was left out as he really didn't want Sakura to know about it.

Instead he painted the picture that Mizuki had used him all year long, making sure he failed enough to ensure he did not succeed the final exam, before using him as a scapegoat to pin the theft on. He had been smacked by Umi, Ayame and Sakura when they heard he used his sexy no jutsu to knock out the Hokage, but they still were giggling at the thought so he didn't mind too much. When he finished the tale, with him using kage bushin to beat Mizuki to a pulp, there was applause and one or two appreciative cheers from the crowd, which he of course could not resist bowing too, only to tip out of his chair by overextending to raucous laughter. Standing once more, there was a call from somewhere near the back. "One more, one more I say!" there were calls of agreement from the crowd, as well as calls for more ramen and drinks. Whilst Ayame rushed her way round the group taking the multitude of orders, Naruto raised his hands, beckoning for silence once more. "Okay, okay, you guys do ask for a lot, but what can I say, I'm a crowd pleaser. In which case, let me tell you the tale of today, and how I came to meet these two little damsels here, and how I ended up looking like as much of a mess as I do now." He finished by reaching across and ruffling the girls hair, causing both to complain playfully and squirm in their seats, trying to get away from his hands.

Settling back in his seat, and stirring his now stone cold ramen, he began by telling of the build up to the day, introducing Umi to everyone and how she came to be in Konoha. By the time he finished his description of the bandit attack he once more had everyone's attention, the only movements were their consumption of their ramen and drinks before silently beckoning for more from the very busy Ichikarus. He then skipped to when he and Himako had left the gates the next morning, only to be shouted into continuing the whole tale by the crowd. Therefore, for the next hour therefore he unfolded the tale of the last two days. He spoke of his prank, getting good natured jeers and calls from the crowd who had been on the wrong end of the prank, as they now understood why he had needed to blow off some steam after the incident with Mizuki. His description of his meeting with the Hokage stopped those soon enough, and the silence was maintained as he described tracking the pickpocket down and retrieving Umi's money.

Umi's generosity restored the cheerier mood and his meeting with Himako brought rounds of laughs, mostly at his expense of course. There was quiet murmurings when he described his failed attempts at finding out where the bandits had gone, which turned into excited whispering as he described finding the ruse and how the bandits had done their little plan. The whispering turned angry as Naruto described finding the bodies in their pile, and he had to gesture for quiet once more. He described finding the camp, and that Akko had fought against one of the bandits, and how he had then jumped in in order to save her life, to the gasps of the crowd around him. He cast his mind back to the fight, after all, if he was going to describe how he almost died more times then he could count, he wanted to make sure he told the tale accurately.

*flashback*

The bandits got over their shock quite quickly, especially as the axe wielding clones threw themselves forward to engage as many of the bandits as possible. With the battle beginning in earnest around him, Naruto created another two dozen clones, the toll on his stamina beginning to tell as sweat appeared on his brow. He quickly gave his orders to those around him. " you lot, your sole job is to get every captive out of here, I will distract them. Once that is done, find where Himako is, and tell her to wait for my signal, she will be very useful as a surprise piece here, just in case they pull something unexpected on us." No cheers, no signs of agreement, the clones were just gone into the melee like they had never been there, though he noticed that the girl was gone from where she had been as well, so he knew they hadn't just been dispersed. There was a shout from behind him, and he turned, raising the axe defensively as he did so. It was lucky that he did so, as the axe blade intercepted the blade thrust from a bandit armed with a rapier, who seemed to have worked through his clones with relative ease. The blade slipped up the axes blade and towards his face, opening a cut on Naruto's brow even as he ducked back to avoid it.

The two clashed again, the bandits skill and strength against Narutos reflexes and speed, and the bandit seemed to be winning. Deciding to act like a ninja, Naruto waited until the bandit was striking once more, before replacing himself with an unwitting bandit who he could see fighting just behind the rapier bandit. The bandits had no time to react before the rapier pierced the replaced bandits stomach for almost three inches before the other bandit managed to stop himself and his blade. The bandit realised the ruse, and withdrew his blade whilst turning around, but it was too late, the side of Narutos axe slamming into his face with a crunch blood pouring from his nose as he fell unconscious, the other bandit taken down by a clone from behind.

Having incapacitated the two bandits, Naruto grabbed the rapier from the floor where the bandit had dropped it, before casting his gaze round. The battle was not going well for him and his clones, not that he had really expected it to. There were only a third of his clones left now, and they only seemed to have dropped twenty or so bandits, through trickery or other means. Deciding that if it weren't broke don't fix it, he summoned another sixty clones, who faced the previously victorious bandits with the original at their head. Raising the rapier above his head, having stowed the axe at his waist, he shouted out a single word. "Charge!" With this the clones shot forward, catapulted by Naruto's chakra technique, slamming into the surprised bandits with devastating force.

The original ducked and weaved through the conflict, targeting those bandits that seemed the most adept at taking out his clones. First was a giant of a man, whose two handed hammer was the bane of the clones that were not able to dodge due to surprise or the roiling melee around them. Naruto worked by ducking and dodging through the strikes until he was too close to the man for him to use his weapon, distracting him long enough for a trio of clones to strike him down from the back, though the man had caught him full in the face with one of his massive hands as he did so, causing his left eyelid to swell up within minutes. With his vision partially impaired Naruto was forced into his next battle with no respite, faced by a scarred man with an eyepatch and armed with a deadly pair of knives.

The man soon proved to be superior in terms of weapon skill compared to Naruto, but didn't expect for Naruto, having dived backwards to avoid another set of cuts, several of which covered his torso already from this man, to pick up dirt from the floor with his spare hand, and then promptly throw it into the mans only eye during the next exchange between the two, followed by two haymakers that had the man on the floor unconscious like many of the other bandits around him. With the addition of the second set of clones, the battle had turned in the favour of Naruto and his clones once more, more than half the bandits having been taken down and several of the more skilled bandits amongst them. Then there was an explosion, and almost a dozen of his clones burst into smoke. A moment later 6 more burst into smoke whilst three more blocked the flying weapons that were revealed to be shuriken.

Appearing through the smoke generated by his clones dispersal was a man. He was in his mid thirties, average size and build with one ugly scar down the left hand side of his face and armed with a multitude of knives and shuriken strapped to his chest, arms and upper legs. The man eyed Naruto up and down before laughing in an uproarious manner. "You guys are struggling against this guy? The boss sent me to see what the commotion was, thinking you guys were being attacked by a tiger or something and here I find you struggling against a shrimp and his duplicates, i can tell you now he will not be happy at all with this." one of the remaining bandits raised his hands defensively. "But Socho, we were taken by surprise, there were so many of theurgh" he finished with a gurgle as one of the mans knives implanted itself in his neck.

"Anyone else want to try and make excuses? Good, now keep the clones busy, I will deal with the kid and end this, we then have to move out in case he called for reinforcements, one of you inform the boss now, or it will be all of our heads." with that, the man charged, reducing the clones that tried to intercept him with swift deadly strikes, Naruto barely reacting in time to avoid a stab to the gut, instead receiving a deep cut in his left side. Shrugging off the pain as best he could, he struck back out with the rapier, only for the man to disarm him with surprising ease. The man chuckled "you really are new at this aren't you kid, at least make it somewhat of a challenge to kill you. If you are interesting enough, I will add your headband to my collection."

He opened his jacket to show at least six headbands strapped to his chest, all of them Konoha ones. With this revelation Naruto saw red, drawing the axe, he poured chakra into his feet before shooting forward. The surprised look on the mans face was very gratifying even as Naruto shattered one of the mans weapons and continued to drive forward. His progress was stopped when his axe blade dug into one of the forehead protectors and stopped there, before being booted away with a swift kick that left him gasping for air. The man drew another blade after throwing away the hilt of the broken one and eyed Naruto appreciatively this time, fingering the cut with one hand. "That's some move you have there kid, unlucky with the forehead protector, but that is why I put them there of course. Now, unless you have something else to match me, it's right about time you died, no bad feelings of course, just business." the man charged him and Naruto was forced on the defensive, and even then the man was opening wound after wound on his torso and arms, slowing him down even further.

As a last ditch attempt to turn the battle around, Naruto summoned his chakra, creating several clones between him and the bandit. They lasted barely a second, and the bandit then reached through the smoke and grabbed Naruto's neck, batting the axe away as Naruto tried to swing it at him, before grinning down at Naruto who was struggling weakly against his grip. "Good try, but I was expecting it, any last words brat?" Naruto tried to say something, blood oozing from his mouth as he did so, but it came out as an intelligible murmur. The bandit leaned in closer, grinning wickedly. "Sorry brat, want to repeat that?" this time, Naruto grinned back, uttering two words to the surprised bandit.

"Decoy...bitch!" and then it turned to smoke, the bandit only having time to roar in anger before Naruto burst from where he had been transformed as the clones axe, burying the blade of his own axe into the mans unprotected back. Falling forwards, the bandit uttered one sentence before he breathed his last, his voice quiet but audible to Naruto all the same. "well played kid, but now you got to beat the boss..." as if heralding the arrival of the man, Naruto had no time to react before he was smashed in the stomach by a mace, blood exploding from his mouth. Landing in a heap, he looked up to find a large red haired man stood over snarling at him, crude mace in one hand that was easily half the size of Naruto. Just as the man raised his mace once more, snakes flew through the air and slammed into the bandit, pushing him back as he beat them away with his mace and hands.

Struggling to his feet, stars bursting in his vision, he felt someone land next to him and he groggily turned, hands raised defensively, only to find a purple haired lady with fishnet clothes and a forehead protector around her neck that signified she was from Konoha. She was looking at him with a smirk, as best as he could tell with his limited vision anyways. "You look like hell kid, but good job nonetheless, we will take it from here, you have a rest." Naruto saluted lazily, before tilting forwards unconscious, into the ladies bust without a care in the world.

*end flashback*

Even as he finished his story, he held up his hands defensively as he could see Ayame and Sakura were looking at him dangerously. "Don't hurt me, I was unconscious well before I fell forwards, so I didn't do it on purpose, I swear it's true!" it seemed to mollify them as the rest of the group burst into applause, several of the men wolf whistling as well bringing a blush to his face as he tried to act modest in front of all the attention. Slowly the crowd dispersed realising that there was no more to come and he was left with his friends once more. Umi, Akko and Yuna were looking at him with Awe, and even Sakura was looking very impressed with his work. But before they could say anything else, there was a very cross voice from the door, and when Naruto turned he found himself faced by two Tentens, one looking very angry whilst the other was cringing and looking apologetically at Naruto. "Perhaps you have time now you have finished telling tales, to tell me exactly why one of your clones is currently pretending to be me and asking my sensei about his eternal rival?" With a flick of her wrist, she dispelled the quivering clone even as Naruto gulped apprehensively. "Well, it's all like this really..." If he survived the next encounter, he knew he owed Kami quite the amount of good karma to pay all of this good luck that he had been receiving recently off of her...


	11. The last of the Nights Affairs

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_Even as he finished his story, he held up his hands defensively as he could see Ayame and Sakura were looking at him dangerously. "Don't hurt me, I was unconscious well before I fell forwards, so I didn't do it on purpose, I swear it's true!" it seemed to mollify them as the rest of the group burst into applause, several of the men wolf whistling as well bringing a blush to his face as he tried to act modest in front of all the attention. Slowly the crowd dispersed realising that there was no more to come and he was left with his friends once more. Umi, Akko and Yuna were looking at him with Awe, and even Sakura was looking very impressed with his work. But before they could say anything else, there was a very cross voice from the door, and when Naruto turned he found himself faced by two Tentens, one looking very angry whilst the other was cringing and looking apologetically at Naruto. "Perhaps you have time now you have finished telling tales, to tell me exactly why one of your clones is currently pretending to be me and asking my sensei about his eternal rival?" With a flick of her wrist, she dispelled the quivering clone even as Naruto gulped apprehensively. "Well, it's all like this really..." If he survived the next encounter, he knew he owed Kami quite the amount of good karma to pay all of this good luck that he had been receiving recently off of her..._

__Chapter 11: The Last of the Nights Affairs

"And with us knowing nothing about Kakashi's test tomorrow, or about the test tomorrow, I decided to do a bit of investigating. You popped into my head as I knew you graduated last year and thus had a genin team and sensei, my clone obviously thought that your team might know something about what we were to expect, that's all I was doing, and I'm very sorry and won't do it again... Don't hit me please! I have far too many bruises and cuts already without you adding anymore." Looking up between his defensively placed hands after his impassioned plea, he found himself looking at Tenten, who was smirking down at him, the other girls looking at him with a grin.

"Well, at least you know how to apologise for making my next few weeks absolute hell, which it most definitely going to be now he thinks that I am interested in getting an eternal rival like he likes to keep going on about. Now, buy me some ramen and promise to help me train some time, and I might forgive you in time... What do you say?" Naruto sighed, it could be worse he supposed, at least it was only dinner, though the other request... "Train with you? Why would you want me to train with you? I've only just graduated?" She looked at him like he was stupid "you can create solid clones, and if your story is true you can create loads of them, that's the best targets I can ever have for throwing practice."

That made some sense he supposed, and he acquiesced with a downhearted sigh and turned to Ayame. "You can add Tentens meal to my bill as well as the others. The only good news is that I get the bounties for all the bandits I defeated tomorrow, even if I didn't get paid for the mission itself. I'm just hoping that Jiji has been keeping track of how much money and time this counts as in regards to my prank fine, as I really haven't had time to care since yesterday." They sat down and ate, the girls chatting amongst themselves whilst Naruto inhaled his ramen as quickly as he could. He managed to reach seven bowls before Ayame forced him to slow down, as Akko was trying to copy his mannerisms, or the complete lack of them as the case was when he got into one of his ramen sprees. With the added incentive of someone trying to copy him on something for the first time, he remembered his manners as best he could, even though it slowed him considerably it was worth it.

It was eight o'clock when Sakura put down her third ramen bowl with a contented sigh. "Right, I have to be off home now, chores to do and I want to be up early tomorrow for Kakashi's test. Thank you very much for an interesting evening Naruto, I will cover my part of the bill as you sound like you will be short of funds for the near future. And besides, you did very well this evening, you didn't even try and call it a date or anything." she smiled even as I pouted. "Sakura-chan!" she and Umi giggled at the response, Ayame bringing her her change before she waved goodbye to everyone before leaping off to the roof tops. Ayame looked at him with a wicked smile. "She seemed nice enough, should I be worried about you ignoring your promise to me that you made all those years ago? You seem to be gathering quite the group of girls together." Naruto winced, he had forgotten that particular promise. "Ayame-chan, i was like five when I made that promise, I didn't think you would take it seriously, I mean I'm sure you would prefer someone else by now rather than me, even if I do make it to be Hokage."

The incident in question had happened on the first night Naruto had discovered the little ramen stand, and Ayame had giggled at his shyness as he slowly edged his way in looking absolutely terrified, grabbing his hand and bringing him to the bar with a huge smile on her face. Her dad was busy cooking for the other customers they had, so she took Narutos hesitant order of a miso ramen, and having been learning how to make ramen from her dad, had made the bowl for him herself. Whilst she had since made much better ramen for him, at the time it had been the nicest thing he had ever tasted, declaring as much to Ayame, who had blushed before stating that it wasn't as good as her dads. He had told her he didn't care and that if she would cook this well for him, when he was Hokage he would marry her so that only he would be able to have her ramen. He had no real idea about marriage at that point, only that it seemed to make most people really happy, even when they were really old. Ayame had known more, being older and having been a much better student at school, and had blushed before asking if he was serious. He had affirmed that he was, going so far as to pinky promise with her about the matter, to the gruff laughter of her father who had been listening in.

He was brought forth from his reminiscing by a thwack to the side of the head, Ayame glaring at him. "I did only mean it as a joke Naruto, though I advise you not to assume you know about what a woman wants, it will not end well for you." he nodded meekly "Hai Ayame-chan, I won't do it again." she smiled and all was well in the world again. Tenten spoke after it was clear the two had finished. "Right, well I am going now, thanks for the meal Naruto-san, and I expect you tomorrow evening for training, I'm sure you can find my team then, you seem quite adept at doing so." After receiving a chorus of farewells, she too left the stand, and Naruto decided that now was probably as good a time as any to settle the bill, as everyone had finished eating. Teuchi had shaken his head when Naruto had asked for the bill, instead opening the till that the ichikarus used for their money, pulling out a few fifty ryo notes and waving them at Naruto.

" I don't think you noticed Naruto, but with your stories keeping people eating and drinking, this was the most successful night that I have had in almost twenty years, we made almost 1000 ryo profit, and if you had continued, I may well have run out of ramen stock. So I would like to offer you a deal, every time you come and tell of your adventures and they gather a crowd, I will give you a third of the takings that we make more than normal, minus the cost of anything you order. With your friends food I count it at one hundred and fifty ryo for the night, which isn't a bad little sum." Naruto waved his hands dismissively. "You know I can't accept that Jiji, that's your money you earned with your awesome cooking, you can't expect me to take it for simply telling my friends a story."

Teuchi grinned even as Naruto felt a pair of feminine hands entwine lightly but firmly around his neck from behind him and Ayames voice spoke softly in his ear. "But Naruto-kun, if you don't start earning money soon, how will you ever pay Umi-chan back? I don't want my future husband to be in debt before he marries me, how will you buy me lots of pretty things if you have no money?" Whilst there was a teasing tone in Ayames voice, he could also tell that if he continued to refuse the money she would make him regret it very very much. With the countenance of a man on his way to the chopping block he spoke "well Jiji, you sure know how to use your beautiful daughter to win your arguments for you. I accept the job offer, though I'm not promising any more tales for sometime I don't know whether we will get anything interesting in the near future."

After loosing that argument the evening had ended shortly afterwards, with Akko and Yuna yawning loudly and wishing for bed. After telling them that he had a place for them to stay, which meant he had to survive another attempt at knocking him to the floor as the two younger girls hugged him happily before going and hugging Umi who told the two that she was also living in the same place, Naruto said goodbye to the Ichikarus and thanked them once more for their support and excellent food. He was surprised when Ayame shook her head at him before stepping up to him and embracing him in a hug, thanking him for a nice evening. She then pulled back and grinned wickedly before stating that she looked forward to him starting on his promise soon, as she wanted at least a dozen dates before the engagement began. That comment left Naruto red faced but grinning as he shouted back that to do so might annoy her father, but he would be In touch. He had walked the girls home, ushering Akko and Yuna into the apartment next to Umi's that he had had clones clear out and prepare whilst they had been having ramen. He promised to help them decorate it as they liked the next day, as well as giving Yuna a spare key for his room, in case they needed him for whatever reason.

With the two young ones in bed, Umi and Naruto had gone into Umi's apartment, and whilst Naruto had slowly replenished the clones chakra, which had been running dangerously low by this point, the two had discussed what had happened over the last day that Umi may have missed. After his case with Yugao and the girl spy, Naruto kept it serious, and Umi obviously got the hint as the two talked as they would in public, saying nothing that might reveal themselves as the same person. Once the talking was done and the clone recharged, Naruto had bid her goodnight on her doorstep, only to be surprised by the hug that he recieved from Umi, who then pulled back and smiled tearfully at him. "I was so worried when i opened this door and you were stood there like you were, please don't do that again, i don't think i could take it."Naruto did his best to reassure her with a smile. "Don't worry about me Umi-chan, I will always be here, i have to make it to Hokage don't I?" She giggled, and let him go without further comment, but he had to admit that the clone was really acting the part well now, obviously had worked very hard to align himself with the role he had created.

Closing the door, Naruto didn't even jump this time as a voice came from behind him, getting annoyingly used to people appearing unannounced into his home. Turning he found himself facing the purple haired woman that had saved him earlier today, her face unreadable. "You know, i should be angry with you for the whole revealing the bust thing you did... but i feel you are in enough trouble without having me on your case." He grimaced, walking up to her as she stood next to his kitchen counter and bowing respectfully. "You were listening as well? You could have come and joined us I'm sure... Sorry I do not know your name Kunochi-san." The woman smirked and leaned against the counter, and after a moment of pondering Naruto joined her nervously. "No sweat, your not old enough to have heard of me yet I imagine. I am Anko Mitarashi, member of the torture and Interrogation department, who the survivors of the attack today were taken to, though i doubt we will get anything from them, minions like that aren't told anything by their masters." Feeling a little relieved by the fact the woman wasn't mad at him for anything, Naruto relaxed into the sofa, smile leaving his face and his face becoming sadder.

"Okay then Anko-san, no offence, but what are doing here? If you need a full report i can write you one for the morning, but I would really prefer to be alone for the night." That got rid of the teasing smirk that had been seemingly fixed on her countenance, her face becoming serious as she sat forward, eyes fixed on him. "Surprisingly enough kid, when our ninja make their first kills, we like to look after them. What you have been through today is more than can be expected from any of our graduates, and I am here as the current expert in psychology, albeit off duty right now. What I am saying I suppose is that I am here to give you any help you need with dealing with death and your role in it." Naruto scoffed darkly, obviously the hokage had been telling the truth all those years ago.

"Thanks Anko-san, but this isn't my first kill, after my childhood, it should not be surprising that I have already had to defend my life and take another ones." He could tell that shocked her and she actually grabbed his arm lightly as she leaned closer to look at his face. "How old were you? Does the Hokage know? Did you get any counseling?" Once more he shrugged, eyes darkening as he recalled the event to her, clear as crystal even after all these years. "I was five years old, it was my birthday, a drunkard broke into my flat that i had just been given by the Hokage, and set about me with a knife screaming at me that I would pay for killing his brother. I was terrified, and when the man dropped the knife after stabbing me twice, I grabbed it and held it defensively in front of me, backing away from the man, one hand on the knife, the other reaching for my door handle when he rushed towards me drawing another knife. Without thinking i thrust the blade forward hoping to make him back off, but he had been too drunk to care and instead had thrust himself on my blade. He didn't die quickly and it was not fun too watch even as my 'guards' eventually got their acts together and called the Hokage to the scene. He quieted the event from public view and left it at that, only Ino's dad knew as well as he was the one that i needed to see about the trauma."

He looked down at his hands, before shuddering and looking away from them "And i thought that it would become easier the next time it happened." Anko's face softened somewhat and she moved to grab his shoulder and drag him to the couch. Sitting the two of them down upon it, close to each other but not touching, she smiled reassuringly and leant back relaxingly. "Come on then kid, i think we need to have a chat about this, or whatever the hell you liked to chat about." And thus, Naruto slowly began to speak, about the fight when he was younger, the hate of the villagers and how it made him feel even now, and before he knew it he was revealing things that he had never told anyone before, the times he had considered attacking those that had ignored and glared at him, just so that they would not do so again without thinking about the consequences first. The times he had contemplated running away from the village, having heard the wonderful tales of the fire country capital and hoping he would be accepted there. And before he had realised it, he was falling asleep, completely unaware that he was doing so.

Persona change: Anko Mitarashi, Special Jounin of Konoha

Watching the kid drop off to sleep, Anko was struggling to suppress her emotions and to maintain her facade, the psychological persona that she used when her more physical methods of extracting information was considered too extreme or inappropriate for the target. It evidently had worked however, the kid had told her a lot that had not been known about his psyche. If it weren't for the two facts that firstly he seemed to have stabilised himself on the psychological front, and more importantly she thought that him being a ninja would reduce the chance of him running out of the country, she would have been forced to report him to the Hokage and have him removed from active duty before he had even begun participating in official missions. "Terrifying isn't it? The psyche of one of the most powerful entities of the planet, so fragile and yet no one knows the truth, even those that know of the lie only know some of the truth." Anko was on her feet in a moment at the noise, and her paranoia ramped up when a moment later a cloaked girl appeared out of the shadows. Even as Anko raised her hands for her kunai pouch, the girl held up her hands.

"Peace Anko-san, I am not here to fight, and besides, do you truly believe that you can truly do better than the ANBU squads last night? Especially with someone you need to protect as well..." The girl gestured to the sleeping container and Anko felt her blood run cold even as the girl continued. "So you understand your position? Good, that reduces the chance of you trying to do something foolish during our conversation." Anko was confused, this was the girl who had been hunted through Konoha, every ninja above chuunin had been informed in case they were on duty if she was spotted again, yet here she was in the gaki's lounge as if it were the most normal thing in the world. In an attempt to glean some information, Anko gestured at Naruto with one hand. "What do you want with the gaki? You know that should you try and take him you wouldn't make it out of the village."

That was true enough, Anko would at least be able to raise a form of alert before the girl would be able to effect an escape, and once it was clear the container was gone, the village would be put on lock-down that nobody would be able to escape until he was found once more. The girl scoffed as if Anko had just insulted her. "The boy is no interest of mine to kidnap, simply a valuable target that should make even the Hokage take me seriously with what I have to say to you, and what you will tell him, as the man obviously likes the boy, so the threat of removing him will be countered effectively or that is the hope." Now Anko made no subtlety in her motions towards her kunai pouch, and the girl stiffened in response, hand going to her katana hilt. Both kunochi stood off for a moment longer before the masked girl relaxed once more.

"Calm yourself, Naruto is simply an insurance policy for this meeting to go as planned, he will not come to harm as long as you do not attack me or try to alert anyone else. Now, i have information that will be of use to you, if you will allow me to tell it." Now Anko was really suspicious, but decided not to be hasty and would allow the girl to at least say her piece. "Well, you hardly give me any other choice, so tell me quickly so that we can get this conversation with." The girl nodded "Very well, I am here to tell you that someone is going to infiltrate the village, if they haven't already, and that they will be planning a level of sabotage by the end of the year which will damage Konoha greatly." Anko looked confused, this wasn't exactly what she had expected. "Why are you telling me this information? What do you gain from this?" The girl shrugged carelessly before turning away from Anko to look at the sleeping Naruto. "My reasons are my own, my rewards are mine to know, but i suppose you can know that whilst spying on Naruto-san, my feelings towards this village and its inhabitants have changed. I mean, if he can withstand such hate without breaking down and destroying this place, perhaps there is something about it that is worth saving, for his sake at least."

Anko smirked even as the girl realised that she might have said too much and backed away a couple of steps. "You just lost your biggest bargaining chip with admitting your feelings there, but I suppose if you are genuine about them you are also genuine about the warning, so I will let you go for now, as i doubt i could stop you anyways." The girl didn't respond, and in a poof of smoke laced with lightning she was gone in a shushin, leaving Anko alone. Looking across at the sleeping boy, she couldn't stop the chuckle that came to her a moment later. "Oh gaki, can't leave you alone for a minute can we?" And then she was gone, off to notify her leader of the latest threat to present itself towards the young container, and to assess the warning that she had just been given in its entirety.

Persona: Ne agent 371

She bowed her head as she entered Danzo's study once more as a sign of respect and he looked up with a small smile, obviously amused by something in the situation they were in, though before she could figure out what it was he spoke to her with almost a slight teasing tone to his voice. "Well agent, you seem to be making this a habit of breaking contact with your target earlier than you are meant to, what is your reason for doing so this time?" She failed to understand why that pattern would be amusing to him, but it was not for her to question his humour and as such she replied hastily, hoping he would approve of her latest change in their plan. "I am here to inform you of an opportunity that appeared this evening after Naruto returned from his mission." She paused to check that he knew of what she was talking about and surprisingly his grin was still present as he spoke to confirm his knowledge. "I know about what happened today, very impressive work even if it was only fluke that he stumbled upon the trail as he did. And it is Naruto now? You aren't getting too attached to the boy are you?"

She froze, not having even realised that she had used the targets actual name in such a familiar manner, though she now realised why Danzo was still smiling in the manner of a tiger that had his prey stuck right where he wanted them. She managed to think up of a logical deflection that might help her however, and spoke normally in an attempt to hide her discomfort. "Apologies Danzo-sama, as part of the opportunity that I mentioned before, I had to take on a persona of someone who cares for the target and I have not yet truly dropped the facade." He seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding and gesturing for her to continue, withholding judgement until he knew more. "I was observing the targets on his return, and once he returned to his apartment Anko Mitarashi was waiting for him, having been uninformed of his previous assault and managed to wrangle quite the few secrets out of the target due to his exhaustion and her own skills at psychology. There was the risk that she could want to take him off active service and have him properly interviewed by a Yamanaka, which would have revealed the ploy that we have been trying to hide. Therefore i took a logical gamble and revealed myself to her."

That cause Danzo to lose his smile and he sat up seriously, though he did not speak, instead he merely waited, though the gleam in his eye showed her that her reasoning for the situation had better be sound. "My reasons for doing so were twofold, firstly it was to inform them that there would be an infiltration attempt against Konoha that would prove very damaging to them. This combined with my 'accidental' slip of somewhat caring for the container will make them think that he is the infiltrators target and they will tighten security around him, despite how useless that will be as they will not think to investigate Umi at all. It also increases his chances of becoming a successful genin this year as the Hokage will probably tell the jounin in charge of his squad to pass his team so that he can be watched by them during the daylight hours. My second reason was that it allowed me to further separate myself from any idea that I am a member of the organisation, which will further throw off any ideas they have of my intentions in the village."

Danzo didn't say anything for a few moments and she felt the slightest pang of something she identified as worry that he thought that she had done the wrong thing. After another moment however he leaned back and shrugged. "I suppose it is a sound decision, though it does make our next move quite difficult in regards to the boy, as watching him and his project will become almost impossible now that Sarutobi has truly been made paranoid about his safety." She looked up and the slightest sense of relief washed over her before she brushed it off and broached her next slightly risky idea. "Perhaps Danzo-sama the way around this problem is to be a little less covert about the situation. The target is a friendly and attention seeking boy who loves to make more friends with people, so perhaps the solution is that I befriend him in my official role rather than spy on him during my off time from missions?"

He looked her in the eye for a moment, face set in stone before he posed his reply to her. "Are you sure that you have considered this properly? You would be exposing your cover and I would be forced to place the seal on you for the security of root." She nodded, the risks were present but she was sure she could avoid exposure, it was not like anyone would know that she was spying on the container once she found a way to make contact with him in a believable and non suspicious manner. "Hai Danzo-sama, I know what I am asking for and I understand the risks. Besides, I think i am in need of reinforcing my public persona somewhat anyways, with this step up in scrutiny I might fall under suspicion if i am as anti-social as I am currently being." He nodded, accepting her decision and stood slowly, walking round his desk. "Come then, we will apply the seal now and then you can be on your way, just make sure that you remember that your mission is to keep the target safe, not too get too close to Naruto the container, though I am sure you wouldn't mind that either..." It was a good job she was wearing her mask, as she was blushing slightly at the insinuation he had just thrown at her, and him seeing that would do her no good whatsoever.

**A/N: Phew, long chapter that covers a fair bit of character development for both Naruto, some of the canon characters and my OC's. I can see several points I might get complaints for, especially the fact that Naruto got attacked by a drunkard and killed him. In my defense I don't think its unbelievable for one person to go over the edge and try and do what he sees as the source of his loss harm, but those who disagree with that are probably already against my story because I had Naruto be treated badly so meh :P. Ayames character can either be taken as a teasing older sister figure, or as a serious contender for Naruto's other half in this story, I haven't decided yet and I will not for a while. There are of course other points, but I will it for readers who wish to discuss them to review about them. Hope you all enjoyed it Ja Ne!**


	12. The Test

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_He looked her in the eye for a moment, face set in stone before he posed his reply to her. "Are you sure that you have considered this properly? You would be exposing your cover and I would be forced to place the seal on you for the security of root." She nodded, the risks were present but she was sure she could avoid exposure, it was not like anyone would know that she was spying on the container once she found a way to make contact with him in a believable and non suspicious manner. "Hai Danzo-sama, I know what I am asking for and I understand the risks. Besides, I think i am in need of reinforcing my public persona somewhat anyways, with this step up in scrutiny I might fall under suspicion if i am as antisocial as I am currently being." He nodded, accepting her decision and stood slowly, walking round his desk. "Come then, we will apply the seal now and then you can be on your way, just make sure that you remember that your mission is to keep the target safe, not too get too close to Naruto the container, though I am sure you wouldn't mind that either..." It was a good job she was wearing her mask, as she was blushing slightly at the insinuation he had just thrown at her, and him seeing that would do her no good whatsoever._

**Chapter 12: The Test**

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto woke the next day with a headache and a sore neck despite having one of the best nights of sleep that he had had in years, and once he woke himself to a decent level he remembered why, Anko's actions of the night before causing him to curse even as he got up to turn his alarm off that had been the thing to awaken him. Looking at the time on the clock, he panicked and rushed to go and get some clothes on, he was almost half an hour late! twenty minutes later he landed in training ground seven with a heavy thud, having used his clones to throw him through the air high above Konoha as it was quicker than trying to navigate the streets or rooftops at this time in the morning. Standing from his crouch and dusting himself off, he looked up to find a shocked Sakura and a mildly interested Sasuke looking at him.

As with the previous day, it was Sakura who found her voice and asked in obvious wonderment "Naruto, did you just fly here? And how are you all recovered from yesterday?" He resisted the urge to chuckle at her first question, though he supposed that might be what it had looked like from this end, though the second query quickly brought him back to reality and he had to think on his feet to come up with an answer. "Well Sakura-chan, I have just come from being debriefed about yesterday, and whilst i was there a medic nin fixed me up as best she could, still a little sore though. About the transportation, if you want to call it flying you're welcome to, but its actually me using my clones again to jump off, gives me a nice boost to speed." he then looked around and for the first time noticed the lack of his silver haired Jounin sensei. "Ano, where is Kakashi-sensei? Or is he being late again?" Sakura seemed to consider her response for a moment before sighing and sitting down once more. "Sensei isn't here yet Naruto, I hope he doesn't plan on making this a habit, especially if he keeps telling us the wrong time to turn up."

Sasuke grunted, obviously in agreement with what Sakura had said, causing the girl to go a little dreamy eyed at the notion that her crush thought she was right. Though before he could get upset at the interaction, Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke not too far from where they were stood, his mask covering up his facial expressions even as the man turned and eyed them for a moment critically, before raising his hand and waving as the visible part of his face crinkled into what could be interpreted as a smile. "Morning little ones." Naruto wisely stepped to the side, he had seen that look on Sakura's face before, though thankfully it was directed at someone other than him for a change. Breathing in deeply, she let loose with a single yell that embodied all of her annoyance and dislike for having been made to wait for the man in front of her. "YOU'RE LATE!"

Kakashi actually looked surprised at the sheer force of will behind the shout that was levelled in his direction from someone who hadn't even been taught in the art of intent projection yet. But he was a seasoned ninja who had faced far worse in his time, and as such quickly schooled his features back to his original carefree expression as he replied. "Mao Mao, you are quite the vocal one aren't you? Well, I was late because on my way here i happened across an old lady who was having difficulty with her shopping..." It was at this point that Naruto remembered the memories that he had got from the clones the night before. Nobody had been able to tell him what the test was, as he wasn't really able to just go out and ask about it in his disguises as that would have been suspicious, but they had been able to tell him quite a bit about the man himself.

That included his most well known habits of being a pervert and also being late to everything, and giving really bad excuses when questioned upon it, and feeling that this was the case here, he chose to interrupt rather than waste any more time. "Kakashi-sensei, I think we all know that's not what happened, and that you're not going to tell us what really did happen any time soon. So, can you just save us all some time and tell us what the test is? Considering your history, I would quite like to be the first to pass this test." Kakashi paused, obviously surprised that Naruto had interrupted him and had also known information about the test, as unimportant as it was towards the test itself. "Hmm, and how would you know that little titbit Naruto? Unless you happened to be the cause of my sudden popularity increase in the gossip circles around Konoha last night?"

Naruto chuckled slightly nervously to himself, obviously he hadn't been as subtle as he had initially thought with his information gathering, though of course that many people suddenly asking about the same thing would lead to someone noticing at some point. However, just because he had been called on it didn't mean he was just going to out and admit it directly. "I have no idea what you're talking about Kakashi-sensei, I mean people are bound to talk about you at some point, after all you are considered one of the most powerful Jounin in Konoha, especially with your moniker 'the copy-nin of Konoha'." That truly grabbed the attention of both Sakura and Sasuke in addition to the man he was actually talking to now, if Sasuke's intense gaze and smirk were anything to go by anyways.

With the undivided attention of the entire group, he couldn't resist the chance to throw in one last piece of information that he had managed to gather from the records office that one of his clones had managed to infiltrate. "Of course, that's not even including the fact you were in a genin team under the Yondaime himself, his only team in fact..." He left it hanging as Sasuke's head jerked from watching him, to instead focusing on Kakashi with something now approaching respect. Kakashi clapped his hands together appreciatively "Someone has been busy indeed I see. But enough of Naruto showing off I think, let's get on with the test as I imagine your all starting to get a little hungry." As if on cue, there were three hungry rumbles from the genin present, who all looked at Kakashi somewhat angrily for bringing it up and reminding them of the fact. The man chuckled and placed three bentos that he summoned out of a scroll on the rock behind him, and Naruto knew his eyes weren't the only ones that followed the food somewhat hungrily.

Kakashi then reached into his top pocket and pulled out a pair of silver bells, which he showed to them happily before placing them on his belt. "The purpose of this exercise is simple, to pass this test and become a member of the team, you need to retrieve one of these bells from me before this timer goes off." He paused and pulled a small egg timer from his pocket, setting it to two hours and placing it next to the bento boxes. "Also, if you don't get a bell, not only won't you be getting lunch, but you will be going back to the academy for another year." The cheeriness with which the man talked about their failure probabilities was annoying naruto no end, but rather than comment once more, he let Sakura raise her hand as she had obviously been wishing to since the start of the copy nins explanation, and the masked man nodded for her to speak. "But Sensei, there are only two bells and three of us?"

The man nodded once more. "That is true Sakura, only two of you can get a bell, so the one that doesn't get one will fail automatically. Of course, for any of you too pass, you have to beat me first, and for that, I advise you come at me with the intent to kill..." As the man jumped away from them, the only thought that ran through Naruto's head was that he was glad he had told one of his backup clones to bring his axe.

Location Change: Hokage Tower

The Hokage tower was fairly empty, the missions had all been handed out and all that were currently present were the Hokage, some of his secretaries and other workers, and of course the Jounin that had been tasked with teams for that year. They were waiting on one last member to arrive, which considering his previous habits during this day was unusual for him. Regardless of his almost reflexive tardiness, Genin graduation tests were something that the man always finished with quickly and as such was usually one of the first here, no doubt finishing up as fast as he could to then return to his illicit reading material and whatever else the man chose to do with his time.

The Hokage was waiting slightly worriedly, as only yesterday he had received a threat against the village from the same source that had infiltrated it to spy upon Naruto with little to no effort, but the idea that the boy might be the target was noted by Anko. This theory arose as she commented that the woman in question seemed to dislike the village as a whole other than the young container, meaning that if she had gone as far to risk her discovery and capture for the warning, it was most likely to protect the boy. As such he had assigned shinobi to watch over the boy during the daylight hours, and he would be talking with the boy about changing his lodgings to a more secure location until the threat was apprehended, though he couldn't help but think that the boy was responsible for Kakashi being late.

As if waiting for him to think that, the copy nin appeared in a small puff of chakra, and the Hokage had to bite back a noise of surprise as he took the man's look into account. The man was dusty, covered in mud and there was a deep shoulder injury that had been obviously self bandaged some time ago. The man's single visible eye was almost murderous as he fixed it upon the Hokage, grinding out a single sentence. "Why? Why did nobody think to tell me that I have a genin that can not only use chakra manipulation to enhance his speed to that of a low chuunin from resting stance, coordinate his clones into something that is slowly starting to resemble a cohesive unit, oh and lets not forget wields a bloody battle axe that of course his clones get as well?"

It was at this point that Sarutobi realised that he had never actually got Naruto to make an official report of what had happened yesterday, and the ones from Anko and Himako were currently being analysed by the Intelligence department so naturally there is no way Kakashi could have found out about the recent developments in one of his team. He was saved from replying by his son, Asuma who had also been taking a genin team that year, speaking somewhat boisterously to the copy nin. "So what's wrong with the kid having a few unknown skills that weren't in his academy reports? I assume we are referring to the Uzumaki kid here?" Kakashi's eye turned to rest its glare upon the younger Sarutobi as he replied somewhat more somberly. "The reason it is important is that if i had known how skilled he was, I wouldn't have underestimated him as much as I did, so when he got me in the shoulder with his cloak and dagger move, I acted reflexively rather than analytically..."

That brought the sombre mood to the rest of the room, Ninja reflexes were not to be underestimated by anyone, especially ones that belong to such an experienced and scarred individual as Kakashi. Sarutobi tilted his hat back seriously as he gazed at Kakashi. "What happened Kakashi, where is Naruto and how bad is it?" The man sighed as he reiterated what had happened after he arrived at the training ground to observe the waiting kids. Sarutobi frowned at Naruto's excuse of reporting the mission the day before, as that was obviously not true, but considering the lateness that Anko came to report the threat after volunteering to check upon him, he may well have just overslept and preferred not to have said as such, and also it did provide him with a decent excuse to cover his unnaturally healed injuries. Shaking it off for the moment, he turned his attention back to Kakashi as he began his story...

*Flashback*

An hour in, and Kakashi had to say he was surprised by the actions of the three he was testing, well specifically one of them if he was honest. The other two had acted fairly similarly to what their academic profiles had suggested, though if the girl's weakness to genjutsu was similarly disproportionate to the results he might have to ignore them entirely in her regard. The young container was what surprised him though, rather than rushing headfirst into the unknown situation and trying to engage him in combat, Naruto had followed his team mates into hiding around the clearing, and after that Kakashi had to admit that he had some difficulty in keeping track of the boy as he created shadow clones and spread them around the clearing, before disappearing off into the woods to the south.

After a couple more minutes, half of the clones had then attacked on some unknown signal, their taijutsu non-existent but fast and strong for the boy's age, which coupled with the clones numbers had Kakashi on the back foot for a few moments as he blocked and evaded the flurries of attacks. It quickly changed however when decided to be a little serious, the clones reduced to chakra smoke with seemingly nothing to show for it. Sasuke had then tried to take advantage of the distraction, and Kakashi lost track of what the boy's clones were doing temporarily, concentrating on assessing the Uchiha's skills, which were very impressive for a graduate and even most genin. They fought for almost 15 minutes, Kakashi doing the minimum to keep ahead of the boy and his attempts to grab a bell from him.

Then the boy pulled out what was obviously his best trick, the fireball jutsu that was the jutsu of choice for the Uchiha clan, though Kakashi had easily avoided it before using an earth technique to capture the boy and leave him with only his head above the ground. Once that was done, Kakashi waited for the next attack, presumably from the blond considering the number of clones that he had at his disposal and ready to use. The attack didn't materialise however, and once he activated his limited sensing abilities, he noticed that Sakura had been removed from where he had left her, and that there were several Naruto's watching him from various points whilst another dozen were gathered further away in the distance, though how far away he couldn't tell, he was after all not at all proficient in the area beyond the basic techniques.

Leaping off in the direction that he detected the group of clones, he was surprised when the clones that had been watching him rushed at him, obviously trying to prevent him from reaching his destination. They were quickly dealt with, but they seemed to have served their purpose as the other clones were prepared for his arrival, and several sets of traps activated as he leapt down into the clearing the clones were in. He parried the kunai and shuriken with practiced ease using his arm guards several of them badly aimed enough that he only had to move slightly to avoid them rather than block, causing a couple of the clones to look worriedly at one of their number as if awaiting orders from him. Kakashi chuckled, the one they had looked at was obviously the original Naruto, even as the boy in question nodded his head and the clones ran towards him, obscuring his view of the original as they attacked from multiple angles at once.

These clones seemed to have learnt from the previous clones mistakes however, and were more cautious in their attacks against him. They were still no challenge, but they lasted an extra couple of seconds than the previous clones and Kakashi was starting to get concerned about the blonds plan, seeing as when the chakra smoke cleared he saw the boy stood there, grin plastered on his face as he hefted a battle axe to rest on his shoulder from his from the hands of a clone that had evidently just landed in the clearing with the weapon. Then Naruto raised his hands and formed the shadow clone hand seal, the clone that had handed him the axe intercepting Kakashi just long enough for the technique to work before being batted away by Kakashi as he rushed to intercept the now slightly dangerous threat presented to him.

He ducked under the first axe swing, slightly surprised to find a second axe being swung towards where he had dodged to, causing him to roll under it, dispelling two clones with sharp strikes to the knees as he did so. Rising to his feet he drew a kunai to deflect the next axe strike which was aimed at his torso, flicking the blow over his shoulder into the skull of a surprised clone who also disappeared in a poof of smoke which gave Kakashi time to finish off two more of the clones and roll away from the rest of the group. The remaining Naruto's glanced at each other then faced off in a rough line, though it was clear that one of them was hanging back ever so slightly even as the others charged forwards towards him.

Kakashi felled one with his kunai before it even ran five yards towards him, drawing another in time to duck beneath two strikes aimed for his upper body and he struck forwards with his knife with blinding speed, dispelling both and then withdrawing his arm to deflect another attack. This exchange continued for another 10 seconds until only one Naruto was facing off against him, breathing heavily and axe ready in front of him. With a yell he charged forwards, swinging his axe with an obvious lack of training, allowing Kakashi to easily trip him over and disarm him in one swift move, tossing the axe to his left side even as Naruto rolled back to his feet. It was only as he saw the grin on Naruto's face and he registered the heaviness of the axe he had just discarded that he realised what had happened.

Turning towards where he had thrown the axe, he found himself with Naruto well inside his guard, utilising a speed that he had not shown at all thus far to achieve such a surprise. As Naruto cut into his shoulder with his weapon Kakashi's survival instincts kicked in and all the self imposed limits that he had put upon his skills came off as his body instinctively acted to defend itself. Even as he slammed his chakra enhanced fist into Naruto's sternum with a sickening crack and his other hand wrested the axe away from him, Kakashi's mind took control once more in time to see Naruto slam into the ground twenty yards away from him, silent scream on his face as blood began to froth from his mouth in dangerous amounts.

Kakashi created two shadow clones of his own even as he rushed to the boys side and they disappeared without waiting for verbal orders to track down the remaining team members and bring them back to the starting point even as he grabbed Naruto and took off at a run, not trusting Shushin to not damage the boy anymore than he had already accidentally done so. What he did not find out until later was that the girl on the team was sat shivering in horror off to one side of the clearing, looking down at the two bells that the clone of her team mate had been holding just before its creator was crippled causing it to disappear with a crack.

*Flashback End*

Sarutobi was looking at Kakashi with shock, and he wasn't the only one. "So one boy, not even a genin managed to get the drop on you, one of the most paranoid bastards in the village?" This comment came from an unexpected source, as Anko walked from where she had been leaning against the door of the room, her face surprisingly serious as she walked forwards into the room. "And that is not to mention that you then shattered every rib in his rib cage in at least two different places, cracked two vertebrae in his spine and pulverised his stomach and lungs as a reward for his creativity." That caused a large mix of reactions from the group of Jounin, several looking shocked at the sheer amount of damage that had been dealt, whilst others looked sad that the boy's career had effectively been finished before he could begin. There were some injuries that even the Medic-nins would not be able to fix, and spinal injuries were in that category.

Kakashi looked ashamed at the accusation of his lost control whilst Sarutobi looked questioningly at Anko for a moment before asking his question. "No offence Anko-san, but what about this boy means you paid enough attention to be here on his behalf right now? Last I checked you have only met twice..." He stopped as Anko pulled out a rather thick file from her jacket and dropped it in front of him. "My report on the boy's psyche from my interaction with him. As you can tell by its thickness he has more issues than most of my current patients, solved and otherwise. With this in mind not to mention the fact that he is currently the target of at least one skilled infiltrator and a possible flight risk due to his treatment, I decided to keep tabs on him, where he went and what he did etc. So imagine my surprise when walking down the street to get some dango I nearly get knocked off my feet by Kakashi who is holding said boy like a broken doll."

She threw a glare at the man in question before continuing to talk. "So after Kakashi dropped him off at the hospital and disappeared, I decided to stick around as the medics did what they could for his injuries. That was two hours ago by the way, and about half an hour ago Naruto woke up, despite the anaesthetic they were pumping into him. He couldn't breath properly, let alone speak, so when he got frantic enough that he was worsening his injuries, I had to physically restrain him and explain that he was safe and where he was. Giving him some paper to write on which was a challenge in and about itself, it became clear through his frantic scribblings that he thinks that you Kakashi are one of those that hates him for what is inside of him and that today's exercise was just an excuse for you to try and kill him in a way you could get away with it."

A number of people flinched at that, for a boy that was mostly ignorant of the less well known parts of shinobi life, such an attack could certainly be construed that way. The Hokage looked over at Kakashi shrewdly, trying to work out what had made the masked man run off as he did. "So Kakashi, if you haven't been at Naruto's side for the last two hours, what the hell have you been doing?" The masked nin didn't visibly react to his leaders anger, but his reply made it clear exactly why he was still looking at the ground rather ashamedly. "Well, the reason for that was that Sakura had seen what I had done to Naruto and reacted rather violently towards my shadow clones attempts to calm her down.

*Flashback*

"Get away from me you monster!" Sakura screamed as she threw another kunai at the clone of the copy nin, who dodged it hastily as he held up his hands in an appeasing manner. "Sakura-chan, please, its not what it looks like..." The next kunai flew towards his crotch causing him to leap in the air to avoid it. "Don't you 'Sakura-chan' me you bastard, I saw you kill Naruto in that clearing!" The clone paled under the mask and dodged another projectile, this one a shuriken, and reached for his earpiece so that he could contact the original. "Boss, Sakura's gone nuts, it seems she thinks we killed Naruto when we reacted, I need you back here asap as I really not wanting to end up being punctured by kunai." She growled at his statement, and as such he spent the next few minutes dodging the occasional projectile whilst trying to calm the girl down.

At last, he felt a familiar presence on the edge of the clearing area and breathed a sigh of relief as the original flickered down behind the girl and knocked her out with two simple pressure point attacks. The two looked at each other, and the clone couldn't but drive the point home to the original even as he dispelled. "Really not the best day we have had recently is it?"

*Flashback End*

"So you've managed to cripple one student that if he were anyone else would be out of the ninja service with his injuries, caused one to have a semi mental breakdown, and both of them think that you're out for Naruto's life? It's a good job the team failed otherwise it would be a nightmare." Sarutobi rested back in his seat, content that at least with this debacle Naruto would be permissible to re-sit the year despite having exceeded the two resit limit that was applicable to most candidates, and he would be able to rescind the fine and hours he had applied to Naruto as a form of compensation to the boy. He stopped however when Kakashi let out a uneasy chuckle and raised his injured hand which was closed in a fist. "Actually, Hokage-sama, I think we are going to have to settle with the nightmare." And his hand opened, revealing two silver bells, which were the key to his test, the strings they were attached to cut very close to the metal itself.

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

Naruto awoke quite sharply, memories of what had knocked him out streaming back to him as he did so. Pain coursed through him as he tried to sit up and he bit back a cry as his eye shot open in shock. The room was dark and there was no light through the window, which meant that it was probably nighttime. Looking round the room he was surprised to find himself in one of the private rooms, which were usually reserved for shinobi who had suffered heavy injuries. Looking down he found his chest covered in bandages and his legs restrained along with his hands. As he jerked his limbs in an attempt to free himself a unfamiliar voice called across to him from the shadows. "I wouldn't do that if I were you Naruto-san, it would not be wise for you to move considering you're still very serious injuries."

He relaxed slightly as a man in a frog mask stepped forwards from where he had obviously been standing guard, he recognised the build and mask from some of the ANBU that had picked him up to see the Hokage about his . "Frog-san" He managed to croak out before his raspy throat gave up and he started coughing heavily. Frog was by his side in a moment, hand glowing slightly green as he gently held Naruto down, the pain in his chest and throat disappearing even as he relaxed a bit further. "Apologies Naruto-san, but it would be best if you simply rested until the morning, which will give you a chance to recover somewhat further from your extensive injuries. If it would help you, i can induce your stupor for you?"

Nodding slightly in assent to the idea, knowing that he would struggle to be able to return to his sleep naturally given the situation, there was a moment's pause as the ANBU ran through four handseals before pressing the fingers of his left hand against Naruto's head, Naruto's vision blackening as he felt sleep overtake him almost immediately, his last thought a wonder of why the doctors that had treated him before had never used this technique on him to deal with him being hyperactive.

However, he found himself opening his eyes very shortly afterwards, and wondered for a moment if the ANBU had performed the technique correctly. This thought dispelled itself hurriedly as he looked around, where ever the hell he was, he certainly wasn't in the hospital ward any longer. He seemed to be in some sort of corridor, though with the minute amount of reddish light that was seemingly only available from one end of the corridor he couldn't be entirely sure of its exact size or makeup. There also seemed to be a small river flowing down the middle of the corridor, and looking into it he found it murky and unclean, quite unlike the natural rivers that were spread throughout Konoha and its surrounding forests. With no other inkling of where he should be going or how to get out of the corridor, he decided to approach the lighted end of the corridor. The corridor then began to expand into what seemed to be a large intersection, the ceiling of which stretched far beyond where he could see in the dim lighting and the walls inter-spaced with several other entrances similar to the one he was exiting at that moment.

What was more interesting was the large number of pipes that were running along the walls away from a point on the far side of the room that was separated by a cage like wall that stretched up out of sight, probably to the ceiling itself, a few of the pipes containing a red flowing liquid which seemed to be the source of the light in the room. As he stepped forwards into the middle of the room, his eyes were draw to part of the cage area, more particularly an area that looked like an open-able door that was held closed by a piece of paper that had some kanji scripted upon it. Walking towards it, he managed to decipher the word 'seal' that was written upon it just in time to jump back defensively as something... big moved in the shadows of the cage. A sense of apprehension filled him as two slitted eyes, each the size of him at least, opened before locking onto him with a predatory look that sent shivers up his size. A deep voice emanated from everywhere, the pressure on him increasing until he was forced to one knee and breathing hard even as the words washed over him and a ten story fox stalked out of the shadows, nine tails swaying lazily "**So you are the unlucky mortal that has been made my jailer this time round. Well my container, make yourself comfortable as we have many things to talk about...**"

**A/N: Well, I think this chapter is certainly going to get a response of sorts, whether good or bad I don't know. To head off some of the comments, Naruto didn't act like a brash idiot in the test like he does in the canon because of the bandit fight, in which being brash nearly got him killed multiple times and he does learn from that. Also if a trick works once, he is going to try it again though of course it didn't work out at all well for him this time. Ninja reflexes... Something i came up with because I think it is reasonable, and also means that if anything Naruto did a little too well against Kakashi and paid the price for it. Meeting the Kyuubi, well that will come into more prominence later, for now it is a good cliffhanger to end on. Hope you guys like it and am looking forward to hearing your views in the reviews Ja Ne!**


	13. The progression of Events

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry_:

_What was more interesting was the large number of pipes that were running along the walls away from a point on the far side of the room that was separated by a cage like wall that stretched up out of sight, probably to the ceiling itself, a few of the pipes containing a red flowing liquid which seemed to be the source of the light in the room. As he stepped forwards into the middle of the room, his eyes were drawn to part of the cage area, more particularly an area that looked like an openable door that was held closed by a piece of paper that had some kanji scripted upon it. Walking towards it, he managed to decipher the word 'seal' that was written upon it just in time to jump back defensively as something... big moved in the shadows of the cage. A sense of apprehension filled him as two slitted eyes, each the size of him at least, opened before locking onto him with a predatory look that sent shivers up his size. A deep voice emanated from everywhere, the pressure on him increasing until he was forced to one knee and breathing hard even as the words washed over him and a ten story fox stalked out of the shadows, nine tails swaying lazily "So you are the unlucky mortal that has been made my jailer this time round. Well my container, make yourself comfortable as we have many things to talk about..."_

Chapter 13: The progression of events

Location change, Danzo's hideout, several hours beforehand:

Danzo was overlooking the training of some of his latest recruits, his keen eye catching each error and flaw as the trainees performed them, and he was pleased when the instructor corrected each and every one of them before moving through to the next kata in the taijutsu style that they were learning. In another training area, also visible through the one way mirrored corridor he liked to use when observing the progress of his forces without having any possible effect on the trainees efforts, several smaller groups of trainees were working with more experienced members on their jutsu specialities, depending on their elemental affinities.

He was about to turn and head out of the corridor and back to his room when his earpiece buzzed before one of his personal guards spoke to him quickly. "Danzo-sama, agent 413 has urgent information to report to you, he says it cannot wait until his usual report time tomorrow. He has asked for permission to head over in order to inform you straight away." Danzo strode quickly back to the door that led to the secret passage network that were linked to the hidden door in his study as his good arm went to his ear piece. "Does he give any details about what this information is about, this is highly irregular and I don't appreciate people messing with my schedule."

The guard took a moment to reply, and Danzo imagined it was because he was resisting the urge to logically point out that agent 371 did it all the time and Danzo hadn't cracked down on her because of it. But the guard seemed to control his training and spoke calmly once more. "He says it is to do with the container sir..." Danzo increased his stride, cursing his old injuries that meant that unless he really wished to push himself he was reduced to the same pace as a normal civilian would walk now. "Tell him to get himself to meeting point 5 as soon as he possibly can, I will meet him there rather than down here to save time." "Understood Danzo-sama, Fu and Torune will be at your office shortly then to escort you to the village." Danzo nodded even though his guard couldn't see him and the line went dead once more.

It took him less than five minutes to reach the village with the aid of his far younger guards using shushins to speed their pace, and soon he found himself sat underneath a Sakura tree in one of the smaller parks by the hospital district of Konoha, waiting patiently for the arrival of his agent. It did not take long, two minutes later the man in question, a young medic-nin by the name of Hitomisha, appeared on the edge of the park in a leaf shushin before walking in a relaxed manner into the park. It was a practised routine of his, to take his breaks by coming out to this park and having a walk around to clear his mind and centre himself once more. Hitomisha noticed Danzo and managed an impressive surprised face for someone who initiated Danzo's presence there. "Elder-san, good afternoon, it is good to see that it is not just me that enjoys the presence of this park."

Danzo nodded his head in reply and waited for a moment before a birds all, native to Kiri rather than Konoha sounded, letting him know that they were not being observed. At the sound Hitomisha changed from the cheerful medic to the Ne agent he was well on his way to becoming, standing at attention and bowing to Danzo. "Danzo-sama, the Kyuubi container is in the hospital very badly injured from a full powered attack by Kakashi on his person, there are those that say his ninja career is over." He reached into his jacket and produced a piece of paper which he held out differentially. "This is a list of his injuries that I was able to copy whilst doing my rounds on his floor before coming to report. The other medic nins have done what they can, but it is the spinal injuries that are the true concern here. I have heard however that there is evidence that his tenants chakra is at work in the spinal area, whether this is good or bad I cannot yet say."

Danzo looked at the list of injuries and he actually couldn't quite stop the small indication of surprise passing over his face as he took in the list, that was more injuries than most ninja could credit themselves surviving in one effort, let alone recovering from completely. Standing from the bench he looked at Hitomisha seriously before nodding his head. "You have done well with this information, now it would be best you get back to your duties before you are missed, there will be a step up in village internal security soon and we cannot afford for my loyal agents to get caught up because they got too comfortable." Hitomisha nodded and with a quick set of handsigns he was gone in a shushin, leaving Danzo alone with his guards once more.

Danzo gestured with his good hand and Fu appeared next to him, ANBU armour hidden under normal clothing to reduce the chance of being apprehended by actual ANBU, the Yamanaka's face set into a withdrawn frown, obviously considering the implications of the news they had received. "What do wish for us to do Danzo-sama? Shall we return to the base to plan our next move?" Danzo shook his head and looked out of the park towards the village with a sigh, people needed to be informed of this news as soon as possible, both those who were meant to be guarding him and of course... her. "No, Torune will head back to the base and alert agent 371 to return as soon as is possible, I will relate the news to her personally after we complete my other business."

Fu looked confused even as Torune jumped down, saluted and then disappeared in a bug shushin to carry out his orders. "But if we are not going to inform 371, who you assigned as the targets guard who are we going to see?" Danzo shook his head. "You will see, lets just say that I am not looking forward to this particular conversation in the slightest, emotions are such dangerous things when truly stoked in the correct manner, even when they cloud judgement and lead to terrible errors on the battlefield. Take me to the marketplace, I will lead us from there." Fu nodded, obviously not satisfied with his answer but disciplined enough not to press the matter, and after a couple of moments they were gone leaving the park completely empty once more for a few seconds then a slow wave of people began to enter it from the outside, like there had been something stopping them from getting inside this entire time though not one of them acted like it was so.

Persona: Hiruzen Sarutobi

It was late, and only now was he close to finishing the work that was required of him for the day, and what a day it had been even considering the fact that it was the genin team tests, something that was always a cause for stress and intense thought without any additional complications. Looking down at the list he had made up and was just about to sign as official he went over the events of the day in his head once more with a sigh.

Out of three graduating classes of roughly 30 people from the academy inside Konoha, 10 teams had passed their Jounin tests to become official teams, though most of them would need significant work before they would be considered capable enough to undertake missions above d-rank, especially if they were to represent the village at some point on a mission in the near future. Of the rest of the failed graduates most of them would able to be brought into the mainstream ninja forces that formed the majority of Konoha's defensive forces and conducted protection details and border patrols that would be impossible to keep up if the graduating numbers were simply those that passed their jounin tests.

Of course, without the personal training of a Jounin to increase their skills, many of these ninja would never realise their full potential unless they caught the attention of a sponsor who either would be able to train them or be able to use their connections to get someone to train them, but that was fine in Sarutobi's mind. Unless they got involved in another ninja war, the standard ninja would only have to face low level missing nin, samurai and bandits during their career which wouldn't be too dangerous for them to deal with.

Looking at the passing teams, he noticed that it was the clan teams that were seemingly the most ready for missions and combat, something that Yugao had pointed out a few days beforehand and he had readily expected. Team 7 on the other hand was a much more difficult team to decide whether they were fit for duty at all if he was honest. Whilst Sakura had been calmed down by members of the I+T department and had seemed to accept that what had happened hadn't been Kakashi's fault, it was clear that neither her nor Sasuke completely trusted the one eyed ninja at this point. Sasuke heard the tale of what had happened whilst Kakashi had been reporting to the Hokage from Kakashi's shadow clone and was more understanding of the explanation about reflexes having several issues with trauma himself of course, but the idea of being led by a man who could and already had crippled a team member by accident was not something that would reassure anyone, least of all some newly graduated genin who had no chance of defending themselves effectively if he lost control.

The lynchpin of whether this team would work at all was the one whose reaction was hardest to gauge. He would hold his decision on that team until he could be sure of Naruto's recovery from his injuries, and of course the boys feelings to what had happened during the fight. Frog had reported that the boy had awoken and hadn't seemed to panicked by what had happened before Frog had put him back to sleep with a genjutsu. But that meant nothing until he saw Kakashi and had explained to him what had happened in a way that would hopefully not worry or anger the boy. Whether he would be able to accept the facts and move on, or whether he would be affected by the actions of the population in his childhood as Anko suspected and fear Kakashi for hating him, well he certainly wouldn't be able to predict the outcome.

In addition to this psychological problem, it was interesting that the medical reports were practically glowing with the reports of his regenerative abilities, something that had been regularly logged during his medical examinations since he was a child, but now he had been badly injured the true measure of his healing ability was coming to light in a very obvious manner. There were at least a dozen requests from doctors and medic ninja to be appointed the containers personal physician, no doubt to be able to use him to conduct their personal research into the influence the Kyuubi's chakra was having upon the boy's body and cells as he healed from his grievous wounds.

He had denied them all the role for now and placed him under the care of a diverse team of healers, that would hopefully protect Naruto for now in regards to being used as a research experiment by those treating him. But he would have to appoint someone to the role soon, one who cared for his recovery rather than how it was being done, hard enough as that would be to find amongst the serving doctors at the hospital. Shaking his head to get back on track, he decided to deal with that later when an opportunity presented itself. Instead he turned his attention to the rather insistent mission request that had come through that afternoon, and though he was loathe to give out such a mission in the way that it was requested, perhaps this would help the matters that were troubling him more than he had originally realised. He chuckled to himself as his old mind began to plot once more, pieces fitting into place with surprising ease as he planned his next move with the precision and guile befitting the Shinobi no Kami...

The next Day:

Persona: Umi Kaitoma

Umi woke up slowly with a groan of pain, and took a moment to recognise where she was and remember what had happened. None of it made any sense, she had just been working in the kitchen, making some food for herself when suddenly every fibre of her being exploded into pain, her form destabilising around her. It was only thanks to the extra chakra that naruto had given her form to use that she was able to hold herself together, and then she had blacked out and couldn't remember any further information, certainly not how she suddenly ended up in her bedroom, all tucked up and bedded.

She would normally have suspected the boss to have been the one to do it, but something subconsciously told her that something had happened to him, something bad enough to cause her to collapse as she had done. So that meant that someone else had found her and put her into her bedroom, which was worrying as no one bar Naruto had a spare key for her apartment. There was sounds of movement from outside the bedroom door into the rest of the apartment and Umi stood hurriedly, her body complaining as her pained network stretched itself to maintain its integrity as she moved. Moving to the door slowly, she hoped that whoever was beyond it was not hostile to her, as she had no weapons to defend herself with beyond what might normally be found in a civilian home.

She opened the door slowly, glad that the oiled hinges did not make a sound, something she had done after moving in as it sometimes didn't close properly and swung to and fro, making an annoying screech when she was cleaning or trying to sleep. Stepping forth into her lounge area, she heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like her own coming from the kitchen and the smell of cooking filling the air. Feeling emboldened she strode forwards to the kitchen entrance and stepped in, accusation on her lips, when she found a duplicate of herself stood their in her usual clothes and favourite apron cooking up something in one of her frying pans. The words died on her lips even as the other her chuckled and turned to her with a smirk.

"Thats the first time I've seen you lost for words, even if you are only a clone of the original." Umi recovered quickly at the offhand insinuation that the person in front of her knew her secret. "Who are you? What are you doing here and why are you pretending to be me?" She slipped into a defensive stance as the other her shook her head amusedly before putting the pan down and facing towards her, her hands going to handseals. Umi relaxed slightly when she realised that the fake Umi was just putting her hands in the release seal, and in a poof of smoke the true identity of the person pretending her was revealed, after a fashion anyways. She didn't recognise the cloaked girl in front of her, and maintained her stance unconvinced.

The cloaked figures face was not unreadable, but after a couple of seconds the cloak head rippled as if she was nodding in understanding. "He never managed to tell you about me did he? Thats Naruto I mean by the way." Umi snarled at the name of her boss, remembering the feeling that she had upon awakening and the presence in front of her seemed to confirm that. "Where is Naruto-kun? What have you done to him?" The hooded face shot up and Umi could just make out the gline of a pair of green-hazel eyes within its depths looking at her seriously. "I have done nothing to him, he is however badly injured due to an incident during his genin exam that has him in the hospital and should have by rights caused you to dispel. Sakura is coming here in half an hour to take you and the two young children there in case you didn't know where it was, which I pretended you didn't just in case during the conversation."

That surprised Umi slightly and she relaxed a bit from her stance. "Sakura-chan was here? And you pretended to be me so that I didn't lose my cover for the bosses plan? Why would you do that? I mean, you must have only met the boss in the last few days, as I certainly don't remember you." To her surprise the cloaked girl sighed and turned back to the pan to give its contents, 4 sausages and some bacon a turn before speaking once more. "I will give you a basic overview okay? You need to get showered changed and fed before Sakura returns from telling the Ichikaru's the news and telling them the visiting times." Umi nodded, knowing that the girl held all of the bargaining chips so it was hardly worth being suspicious of her trying something at this stage, she would talk to the boss somewhere private soon and find out what else she had missed in her short time as Umi that it might be good for her to know about.

Persona: Hinata Hyuuga

She walked quickly with Sakura and the girl from Naruto's favourite ramen stand, her mind reeling from the shock she had just received. She had been kept very busy for the past week since passing her genin test, her father and the other members of the main branch Hyuuga family instructing her in the taijutsu katas and Byakugan enhancing techniques of the main branch that it was now felt safe to teach her as she was a ninja of the village. And despite her slow development in these new techniques, the increased ability of her byakugan was very useful in the previous days genin test, which had been with her non-hyuuga guardian and something of a sister figure Kurenai Yuuhi.

She and her team had managed to find all the items she had hidden across several training grounds before combatting the Jounin for the allotted five minutes that was expected of them as a starting team. She had been exhausted after the effort involved, and had been barely able to report the good news to her father before going to bed and falling straight asleep. When she had woken she decided that because she had some free time now before she was meant to meet her team for the days missions, she would go and check on Naruto and see if he had successfully passed his genin test as well.

Not that she doubted he would, after all he was the most determined and positive person that she knew and would never stop until they had passed. So imagine her surprise when reaching his favourite ramen stand to find Sakura explaining quietly to the crying Ayame that Naruto was in hospital after being badly injured during the genin test the day before, and that she was trying to gather everyone together to go and see him once he woke up. Hinata had buried her shyness for once in the face of her crush being so badly injured and approached Sakura, obviously surprising the girl when she had asked if she could come and see Naruto as well.

Speaking of which, Hinata decided to comment on their location even as they approached the front of Naruto's apartment building. **(assume mild stuttering at this point, I won't put it in unless it is major stuttering as it is a lot of effort.)** "Sakura-san, I thought you said that Naruto-kun was in the hospital?" Sakura nodded and then turned to face her with a small smile. "Sorry Hinata, i forgot you have been busy for the last week, Naruto has made some new friends who live with him now and I promised we would pick them up as they are new to the village and won't know the way to the hospital." Transcending the first three sets of steps to Narutos floor, Hinata went to walk down it when Sakura called out, a knowing glint in her eye

"Hinata, they are on the floor above this one, this is the floor Naruto lives on... Though you already seem to know that." Her face went crimson as she realised her blunder and turned on her heel to follow the pink haired girl silently, Ayame also giving her a suspicious look as she realised what Hinata's actions meant. Reaching the next floor up Sakura walked down to the apartment that would be directly above Naruto's and knocked lightly. The female voice that replied sent a pang of jealousy up Hinata's spine even as she drew up behind Sakura. "One moment, there we are, now remember you two, best behaviour."

Two younger voices replied in unison even as the door opened "Yes Umi-neechan we promise." The girl that was stood behind it smiled sadly at Sakura before opening the door completely to let two young girls out, obviously dressed to look their best and with clear tear marks upon their faces. "Sakura-san, Ayame-san, and sorry I am afraid i don't know you Kunochi-san." The girl bowed slightly and introduced herself. "I am Umi Kaitoma, refugee from Tea country, what is your name?" Hinata bowed elegantly back, despite her anger that another girl was now living with her Naruto-kun she could not disrespect her, that was not the Hyuuga way. "Hinata of the Hyuuga clan, I am sorry we have to meet in these circumstances Umi-san, but when I heard about Naruto-kun's injuries I felt I should come and make sure he was okay."

To her surprise, rather than act confused or jealous at her showing concern for Naruto, Umi's smile widened slightly. "Naruto-kun has such good friends, I am sure that he will be pleased to see us all at the hospital. Shall we go then, best to get there as soon as possible." Despite the lingering annoyance she felt due to the girls living arrangements, Hinata knew that with that reaction she would get along with the girl regardless of possible conflict over Naruto, she just had that way of making those around her like her, quite similar to Naruto in her own way if she was honest with herself. Yes, they should be able to get along just fine.

**A/N: This is a filler chapter, but i felt I needed to paint a little more life around the story that I have created thus far, as well as hang a few more interesting titbits for future plot awesomeness. The next post might take a little while, i need to think about where I am taking this story a bit more before I step out and post the next chapter. Please review and tell me what you think, and I hope you have enjoyed the chapter :)**


	14. The Hospital

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_Two younger voices replied in unison even as the door opened "Yes Umi-neechan we promise." The girl that was stood behind it smiled sadly at Sakura before opening the door completely to let two young girls out, obviously dressed to look their best and with clear tear marks upon their faces. "Sakura-san, Ayame-san, and sorry I am afraid i don't know you Kunochi-san." The girl bowed slightly and introduced herself. "I am Umi Kaitoma, refugee from Tea country, what is your name?" Hinata bowed elegantly back, despite her anger that another girl was now living with her Naruto-kun she could not disrespect her, that was not the Hyuuga way. "Hinata of the Hyuuga clan, I am sorry we have to meet in these circumstances Umi-san, but when I heard about Naruto-kun's injuries I felt I should come and make sure he was okay."_

_To her surprise, rather than act confused or jealous at her showing concern for Naruto, Umi's smile widened slightly. "Naruto-kun has such good friends, I am sure that he will be pleased to see us all at the hospital. Shall we go then, best to get there as soon as possible." Despite the lingering annoyance she felt due to the girls living arrangements, Hinata knew that with that reaction she would get along with the girl regardless of possible conflict over Naruto, she just had that way of making those around her like her, quite similar to Naruto in her own way if she was honest with herself. Yes, they should be able to get along just fine._

Chapter 14: The Hosptial

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

He remembered why he hated hospitals now he thought wryly as another nurse took a blood sample of his for investigation by the hospital analysis. It wasn't that they showed dislike to him or treated him badly, that he could deal with now, it was more that under their care he felt as much a lab experiment as he did a patient. They would take so many blood samples that he was surprised he didn't have a scar on his arm from the needles they used being injected there. And since waking up this morning and being able to get up and walk around, albeit with great effort and pain, he had been run through test after test by a swarm of doctors and medic nins, investigating the properties of his healing and checking his spine to check it for stresses upon it. He hadn't been told the extent of his injuries except for what frog had told him the night before, but if his spine was what was being checked he decided it was better that he didn't know the details.

The good news was that the doctors had reluctantly declared him fit for visitors, though they insisted on keeping him in another night for 'observation'. Bullshit excuse to cause him more discomfort he thought, but he could deal with that as it wasn't too bad to be treated nicely and fed well for a few simple tests and samples. The thought of his treatment by the rest of Konoha brought his mind squarely back to the thoughts he had been trying his hardest not to dwell on since he had woken up, the events of yesterday that had led to his stay here. Whilst he had initially panicked when he had first woken about Kakashi seriously trying to kill him during the test, he knew that if that had been the man's aim then he would have been dead there and then, and definitely not have been taken to the hospital to be treated.

Naruto knew he could be a bit slow at times but now he had thought about it some more he could see that the blow hadn't been aimed to kill him, not that that made it all okay of course. Perhaps instead of killing him which would probably have caused him to be jailed or even executed for murder, Kakashi had instead been cunning enough to just cripple him with a blow that had damaged his spine and with the show of caring by delivering to the hospital would be enough for the thing to be treated as a training accident, even though if he had not been the container for the Kyuubi he would have been crippled for life because of it, and the fact that he could heal from such injuries was only discovered after the event lent some credence to this theory. He tried to shake the feeling, convincing himself that the hokage would not have put himself under a ninja that hated him for what he contained, but the doubt was there and wouldn't disappear despite his best efforts to squelch it.

That brought him to another worrying line of thought, that of the Kyuubi inside him, and the conversation that they had whilst he had been asleep that night. The fox had strangely enough not tried to terrify him into submission with its overwhelming power, and as far as he was aware had also not tricked him with words during their conversation, though he knew he still had to tread carefully around the tailed beast in case of deceit. Recalling the conversation, he wondered whether if the foxes reaction to him was genuine, and if it was what that really meant for him.

*Flashback*

A deep voice emanated from everywhere, the pressure on him increasing until he was forced to one knee and breathing hard even as the words washed over him and a ten story fox stalked out of the shadows, nine tails swaying lazily "**So you are the unlucky mortal that has been made my jailer this time round. Well my container, make yourself comfortable as we have many things to talk about..."** The pressure was almost back breaking and that was at the mere presence of the being in front of him, and he could tell that there was no added intent to the feeling, if there was he may have been forced to the floor. With great effort he stood up back onto two feet once more, swaying unsteadily before turning to face his tenant with a stern but respectful expression on his face.

Then he bowed slightly to the creature, deciding it was best to show respect to the thing that could crush him with its mere presence despite the seal keeping it from doing physical harm. "Kyuubi-san, as much as I would like to say it is a pleasant honour to meet you, we both would know that I would be lying about the pleasant part at the very least so I will refrain from insulting you." The pressure around him decreased slightly as the fox sat on its haunches to gaze at him with an amused expression. "**Quite different to how you normally act mortal, I wonder whether that is out of genuine respect, or out of fear of my power. I honestly expected your first visit to this place to be to demand my power, or to insult me for making your life rather unpleasant. Is this a ruse of some sort i wonder? Because you should know better than to try and trick a fox at riddles and lies."**

Honestly, the second method had been something he had had to resist doing once he realised where he was and what he was dealing with, and it was only thanks to the fact that he had performed the prank and suffered the consequences that he had realised that aggravating those with power would not end up well for him, especially if they were directly linked to his chakra system as the Kyuubi was. Rising from his bow he looked directly into the foxes eyes once more and this time felt a little less afraid as he thought of his reply. "Truthfully I am afraid of you, but that is understandable considering your reputed power." His smile faded and he took a step forwards towards the cage.

"However, do not take that to mean that I am doing this out of fear or in hopes of tricking you, for that would be foolish of you to do so. I do however wish to talk with you as you obviously wish to do with me, so therefore I think that we can avoid the death threats and other such nonsense that probably come at this point in the conversation." The Kyuubi grinned, whether amused or impressed it was hard to tell considering how terrifying the visage just looked by itself there was without any effort on the foxes behalf. "**Well in which case, I suppose we should talk about relevant matters from the beginning then? I have more than enough to speak of, so it would probably be best if you began..."**

***Flashback end***

And they had talked alright, well the fox had anyways once he had asked his first few questions, such as where the fox had come from, and why it had decided to attack Konoha on the night of his birth all those years ago. The kyuubi hadn't answered most of them directly, though the where it had come from question had been one it had answered in detail and had scared Naruto slightly that there had been a creature with more power than all the other tailed beasts combined back in the days before the elemental nations were formed and humans truly learned to control chakra. With that answered Kyuubi had then spoken at length about what it would like from an agreement between the two, making it clear that such an agreement would take more than one simple meeting before anything concrete could be arranged.

He was still unsure of what to do about the fox situation, his very being screamed at him to reject its words as a trick, the fox had said it itself when it claimed that foxes were impeccable tricksters. However, he knew that if the fox wished it could make his life very difficult despite the seal stopping it trying to kill him outright. His healing ability was not something that he wished to put on the line needlessly out of fear or suspicion. It was something for him to consider further another time he mused as the door to his room was opened and his first visitor arrived, causing a smile to appear on his face.

"Jiji! Thank kami you're here, the doctors are at it aga..." Naruto trailed off with a shocked glare as following in behind the Hokage was Kakashi, who looked away at Naruto's glare. Naruto raised a finger before he could stop himself, feelings of anger and fear welling up in almost equal measure. "You! Here to try and finish crippling me are you?" That accusation actually caused the masked man to flinch and Naruto regretted his outburst even before the Hokage spoke at him in a stern and authoritative manner. "Naruto enough! Kakashi did not hurt you this badly on purpose, if he had wanted to kill you he easily could have done so in a much less obvious fashion. We are here to get you both over this little accident and back on track, you are a team now and you must act like it."

The news that they had passed the test cheered Naruto up a little, and a small smile appeared on his face for a moment before he nodded his head. "Well if he wasn't trying to cripple me, what the hell was that punch he through at me? I felt my stomach explode inside me Jiji so it can't be he just misjudged the strength of the attack slightly, especially if these tests on my spine mean what I think they mean..." He gestured to Kakashi, knowing that even though he honestly would prefer not to have to talk with the man, if the Hokage was telling the truth about the man's intentions there was something he was missing here. The silver haired man shifted from side to side uneasily for a moment before speaking, unsure of how to approach his defence from where Naruto was sitting. "Well Naruto, do you know anything about shinobi reflexes?" At Naruto's cautious shake of the head Kakashi sighed before running one of his hands through his hair and beginning to explain the concept, with the Hokage occasionally dropping in what he thought was missed or needed emphasising.

Five minutes later Naruto was slightly confused and at the same time relieved at what the two had told him, though he knew the only reason he even remotely believed it was that Jiji was here agreeing with what Kakashi was saying about what he was beginning to understand was a major thing amongst higher up shinobi. He did have a single question about the whole thing though, something that struck him as a little off about the whole thing. "So, if you guys have this thing that reacts when you are injured or attacked heavily, why the hell did you tell us to attack you with the intent to kill? Surely that puts us even more at risk of something like what happened to me occurring?"

The hokage chuckled even as he shook his head at the question. "In pretty much every case, not even the best academy student would be able to touch a Jounin in combat or get the drop on one of them, so you guys going all out wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that your academic record was written by Mizuki who of course wrote in it that you were unskilled, untalented and without any form of strategic understanding, which is what Kakashi judged what your level of ability would be, even with the kage bushin to help you." Kakashi sent a small glare at the hokage as he spoke up to divert some of the blame. "There was also the fact that nobody saw fit to tell me about the Mizuki thing or the fact that you were off taking on bandits by yourself the day before the test and gaining valuable combat experience that definitely helped you on the day of the test."

Naruto gave a small grimace of a smile as he gestured around him with one hand as his other went to his chest, his muscles constricting as a wave of pain crossed over him once more, something the Kyuubi had warned him might happen as his body was unused to the fox's chakra in such large amounts as it had been over the last twelve or so hours and as such was rejecting its presence as best it could. "Of course Kakashi-san, those skills _really_ helped me succeed judging by where I am being experimented upon..." He caught the warning look from the Hokage and sighed before nodding. "Hai, hai I get it Jiji. Well Kakashi-sensei, If we are a team now, I expect you to teach me loads of really cool jutsu to make up for this little trip understand!"

It was a front, reverting to his boisterous personality in an attempt to hide the fact that he was still not at all comfortable with the man's presence, but despite the fact that both men could probably tell that neither of them brought it up. Kakashi gave him what Naruto assumed was a smile, hard to tell with his damn mask and then saluted the Hokage. "Thank you for this Naruto, I apologise again for what happened and i will make it up to you. Now Hokage-sama by your leave?" The Hokage nodded and Kakashi was gone in a flash of lightning and smoke, leaving the two alone, the Hokage losing his smile as he turned to Naruto once more.

"Are you sure that you are okay with this Naruto, I am sure that Kakashi would understand if you wished for another instructor..." Naruto shook his head, mind made up. Kakashi didn't seem to have done it and whilst a lazy baka, it was better than another Jounin who might really want him dead or crippled... Besides, the man had just essentially admitted that he owed Naruto a favour and that was something that Naruto could just let drop like that. Though, best to be honest about his worries for the team even if not for himself "It's fine Jiji, its just... Are you sure he won't do that again when we are working as a team? I mean i should be okay, especially if i toughen up a bit more, but teme wouldn't stand a chance against such a blow... And Sakura-chan..."

He felt a bit pathetic stating his worries like that, it made him sound like he was using his teammates as an excuse, so he was a little surprised when the Hokage smiled brightly at him once more at his question. "That is the will of fire right there Naruto-kun, care for your comrades above that of yourself. I am certain that Kakashi is even more worried of that happening than you are, and I am sure that he will go out of his way to make sure it does not happen. Now if you are okay with him being your team leader, there is simply the matter of the bounties from the bandits you captured, and the need for you to make an official report from your mission two days ago."

Sarutobi then produced a cheque out of his pocket and presented it to Naruto with a soft smile. "This should go some way to covering your fine, and I imagine I can send someone round later today to help you with your report, better to let you relax right now rather than pile it on." Naruto took a quick glance at the cheque and his eyes widened, it was almost 1700 yen. Sarutobi chuckled, obviously at the look of shock that Naruto imagined had passed over his face. "You get half of the 30% that was assigned to you and Hitomi for finding the base, plus you got an extra 10% for the number of them you managed to take down, whilst the retrieval team and Konoha absorbed the rest to recompense the civilians you helped to rescue, and some of it to be put towards your fine." With that the Hokage gave him a quick hug and then straightened up. "I think our official business here is done now and i can go let your friends in to see you if you wish..." That perked Naruto up and he nodded hurriedly, people were coming to see him? He knew that Umi would, after all she was him in a way, but who else would take the time to come and see him like this?

The Hokage smiled once more at his reaction and headed over to the door and opening it he called out into the hall. "Right, he is ready to see you now, the medic nins have done a brilliant job with healing him up." The last bit was said with the hokage looking back at him and giving a small wink before waving goodbye. "Naruto, once you are released from the hospital tomorrow, come to the Hokage tower straight away, as that will be where your team will be meeting, I have a special assignment to give you all." And then he walked out of the room whistling an indecipherable tune to the calls of "Hokage-sama" that came with his passage. The door opened once more and several people poured into the room with varying levels of relief and happiness at seeing Naruto awake from where he was on the bed.

Akko and Yuna seemed to be being restrained from jumping him by an equally ecstatic Umi, who had lead the charge into the room, followed by Ayame who was smiling broadly at him, tears visibly being restrained in her eyes as she brushed past Umi and the two sisters to engulf him in a relieved hug. As she withdrew and stepped back he noticed that Sakura, Hinata and Sasuke were also there, Sakura smiling happily at the sight of him, Hinata doing the same with a slightly red face that she always seemed to have when she looked or talked to him, whilst Sasuke had a smirk on his face but he nodded when he noticed Naruto's gaze on him, obviously his version of being happy Narutos recovery. Ignoring the three of them with where they were stood for the moment, he focussed his attention on the three girls in front of him. "Akko, Yuna you can come give me a hug as long as you are gentle okay? I'm still recovering you hear?"

The girls nodded impatiently and with a sigh Umi let them go, the two rushing over to the bed before slowing to a stop as Yuna went one side of the bed and Akko went round to the other. At some unspoken signal they jumped onto the bed with him, each embracing him in a one armed hug that they obviously thought was a gentle hug, luckily they were two bust snuggling into him to see his wince as several of his recently healed ribs complained painfully at the pressure exerted upon them. He didn't say anything however as he wrapped an arm round each of them and gave a reassuring squeeze of his own before lying back completely and turning his attention to Umi. "I seem to be making a bad habit of promising you things Umi-chan and then letting you worry about me whilst I go and do stupid things... I am sorry."

To his surprise she and the other girls bar Hinata chuckled at his comment, he had expected her to get really upset or something, but this was decidedly more pleasant for him to deal with if he was honest with himself. She composed herself a moment later as she walked up to him and gave him a quick hug like Ayame had before straightening up and looking at him seriously. "I get the strange feeling that it is something I am going to have to get used to Naruto-kun, I have known you for less than a week and you already seem to attract trouble to yourself more than anyone else I know, I expect another lovely meal for making me worry like this." Naruto chuckled at this little jibe and gestured to where he had put the cheque on his bedside table. "Don't worry Umi-chan, I think I can do that and start paying you back, especially if my little adventures keep being this profitable..."

Umi looked a little confused at what he meant till she picked up the cheque and her eyes widened at the figure. "1700 yen? That is a serious amount of money Naruto-kun." That caught the attention of everyone else in the room and Hinata Sakura and Sasuke all came closer to crowd round curiously. It was Sasuke who spoke first in a slightly confused manner. "What is the Hokage doing giving you this money dobe? Is this to do with you being late to graduation?" Well, never let it be said that Sasuke was dumb Naruto thought as he nodded his head in answer. "Yeah, it's a long story Sasuke, I will explain to you and Hinata at some point at some point as the others have already heard it and I don't want to bore them."

Hinata gave a small eep as he mentioned her name and he used the opportunity to talk to her directly. "And Hinata-chan, it is really nice of you to come visit me in hospital, I am sorry I haven't been able to catch up with you since the academy, it seemed no matter how hard I tried i just couldn't find you." Sakura chuckled at this comment for some reason and Hinata turned even redder, to the point Naruto was worried she was going to faint on him again, before she seemed to manage to control herself and reply to him, somewhat haltingly. "S-sorry Naruto-kun, I-I was doing clan training with my F-father." The stuttering was something he still had to get used to, but he supposed that not everyone could be as forthcoming as he is when speaking, it was one of the things that made Hinata Hinata he supposed. He smiled happily at her. "Thats awesome Hinata, that means you have probably gotten super strong whilst I haven't really done anything useful."

That wasn't entirely true he knew, even before Yuna and Akko voiced their disapproval of his statement, but it was worth it to see the shocked smile on Hinata's face broaden into a full smile that fitted her perfectly even as her face became entirely red and she fell backwards, to be caught by Sakura who was looking at Naruto disapprovingly even as a small grin flashed across her face. "Naruto, that wasn't very nice... But I am glad to see you are recovering, Inochi-san removed the memory from my mind, but I still get a feeling that what happened to you was terrible to watch." That sobered the conversation up for a moment, before Ayame grinned and headed back to the door. "Naruto-kun, I have a little surprise for you..." She was gone for a whole five seconds, and when she returned, Naruto knew even before he could see what she had what the surprise was, the smell was a big give away. "Ramen! Ayame-chan you are awesome!"

And just like that the tension of what had happened to him was gone, and everyone relaxed somewhat, Sasuke leaving shortly after that, 'having made sure the dobe wasn't going to die on him now they had made a team' or thats what he said anyways. It was almost two hours before the nurses turned up to tell them that visiting hours were over now and that they would have to leave in order to allow him to rest, even though he protested that he didn't feel even the tiniest bit tired. The girls all gave him a hug, even Hinata and Sakura-chan, though she had said 'This is a one time thing okay Naruto, don't push it', it still counted. Umi had almost been forced to physically remove the two girls from Naruto, and it had taken him a promise of seven bedtime stories when he had gotten out of hospital to get them to let go. Waving as Akko reluctantly made her way out of the door, finishing the small parade of people and leaving him alone, well apart from the guards he probably had considering frogs appearance the night before.

Something to ask the Hokage about later he thought as he lay back in the bed as the Nurse looked him over once again, something he was sure was going to happen at least several more times before tomorrow morning came and he could get free... It was only as the nurse left that Naruto realised something strange, the nurse hadn't collected any blood from him or even looked at his chest, she had only done the basic tests to check that he was fine, stuff he had learnt in first aid. He was about to call out to the ANBU guard and report it as suspicious when he noticed a small piece of paper stuffed into the arm of his hospital robe that was the arm she had used to check his blood pressure. In disguise of looking at the cheque once more, he subtly opened the piece of paper, upon which was written. 'Training ground 21, shadows are pretty in the new sun of the day, especially yours..."

It took him a minute, but he then realised that this was a meeting point, a time and a hint about Umi, which meant that that nurse was... He frantically tried to remember what her face looked like, but no matter how hard he tried he could not remember any details about it, as if something was trying to make him forget. What it did help him remember with a groan of annoyance was the training he had promised Tenten that he had missed the day before because of his hospital trip. it was hardly his fault, but he knew that she wouldn't see it that way. Scrunching the small piece of paper up to fit back into his sleeve until he could burn it, he put the cheque back down and laid back on his bed, all this thinking was hard work, he was feeling rather sleepy...

And with that he was fast asleep, not knowing that his subtle actions had been noted by his current guard. She had seen the nurses actions and their own medical experience made them suspicious and she had stayed in place to see Naruto read the note the nurse had slipped them before going to sleep. She leapt down from her perch, removing the genjutsu she placed around her to make her impossible to notice as she strode forwards silently and plucked the note from Naruto's arm, reading it quickly and memorising the contents of the message before placing it back in place, her eyes widening as she realised the connotations of the note and what it meant. She disappeared into the shadows as the door opened, the nurse barely catching a glance of the rabbit mask before she was hidden once more. This was something that she would have to tell Cat-taichou about as soon as possible, especially considering the captains attachment to the boy...

**A/N: Evil laugh at this point... The plot thickens and it doth thicken quickly. So we managed the first meeting with the Kyuubi, dealing with the aftermath of the first test and Kakashi and Naruto's talk, Naruto's interaction between him and his friends (girls), and someone beginning to catch onto something suspicious going on with Naruto, all in one chapter... That has got to be worth some reviews right? :P Hope you all liked it and we will see when i actually find the time to write the next chapter... until then, Have Fun Ja Ne!**


	15. The cat and the bag

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

_And with that he was fast asleep, not knowing that his subtle actions had been noted by his current guard. She had seen the nurses actions and their own medical experience made them suspicious and she had stayed in place to see Naruto read the note the nurse had slipped them before going to sleep. She leapt down from her perch, removing the genjutsu she placed around her to make her impossible to notice as she strode forwards silently and plucked the note from Naruto's arm, reading it quickly and memorising the contents of the message before placing it back in place, her eyes widening as she realised the connotations of the note and what it meant. She disappeared into the shadows as the door opened, the nurse barely catching a glance of the rabbit mask before she was hidden once more. This was something that she would have to tell Cat-taichou about as soon as possible, especially considering the captains attachment to the boy..._

Chapter 14: The cat is out of the bag... Or is it?

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

"**We have quite the problem brewing with your little shadow clone idea brat, and you already know that for me to tell you what it is and how I think you can solve it, we have to have a little 'negotiation'." **The voice of the 9 tailed fox didn't startle or scare Naruto anywhere nearly as much as it had the night before when he was recovering from his rather damaging injuries. He remembered the note from what he assumed was his masked friend from the other night but then he had fallen asleep, so how could the Kyuubi know more than he did about the matter?

The small stiffening that had crept into his spine when the Kyuubi had spoken vanished and he began to stride down the darkened sewer towards the ominous red light that illuminated where Kyuubi was being held, taking his time in order to begin pondering the potential issues that could have arisen that the Kyuubi could have picked up on that he had missed. He did not doubt the fox's sincerity about the issue, after their chat last night there was little reason or profit that the Kyuubi could gain by lying to him over such a thing, especially considering what it stood to lose should Naruto think it was lying…

*Flashback*

"**And that is the story of the Rikudo sage and how he fought the only thing that could be considered mightier than me, the ten tailed Juubi, and managed to defeat it and live. He cast its body away to be sealed in the moon for all eternity whilst the products of its power, me and the other tailed beasts, were raised as children of the man who created us like it was a mildly strenuous chakra control exercise. Do you now understand why you and the rest of your pitiful race are insignificant in comparison to those that have come before you?"**

Naruto nodded in acknowledgement of the statement despite the insult that accompanied it, thefox did after all have a point with what it was saying. In comparison to the tales that it told of the sage Naruto really was as weak as a newborn baby and it would take an impossible amount of training and skill to come even close to meeting the fox's standards.

However, Naruto's curiosity was now piqued and there were several questions that he needed answering, like how did the tailed beasts go from being infants taught by a figure such as the Rikudo to being the mindless being of destruction and rage that the Kyuubi was said to personify. However, there was a more pressing question and one that Naruto felt necessary to ask before saying anything more.

"So why did you decide that you needed to inform me of all this on our first meeting? I can understand that you are trying to show me that I am really weak in the grand scheme of things, but how does that help you in any way? Because no offence but I seriously doubt that you did it out of the goodness of your heart, if any of that even exists…" To his surprise the fox grinned at the unsubtle insult and laughed in a very un-fox like manner for a moment before replying in the same tone that it always did in spite of its obvious humour.

"**It is good to see that you occasionally use that thing between your ears for something other than pranks or trying very badly to seduce that pink haired girl that you seem to have your heart set upon for some unknown reason. I suppose you are correct however and that I should enlighten you to why I am doing this, lest your rather insubstantial brain fails to work it out for itself. My… Angle I suppose it could be called is a simple one. Since I awoke when your teacher shattered your entire torso, which was comprehensive work by him I am much impressed, I have been examining this damnable seal and its intricacies, and I have ended up with two possible ways to approach and deal with you brat."**

It took a deep breath in and out, and the air washed over Naruto like a warm breeze, surprisingly refreshing considering its origin and whose breath it belonged to. The Kyuubi seemed to register his surprise but chose to continue its original speech rather than say something.

"**The first way is to treat you like the annoying shit stain that you act like most of the time, and to take out my anger for being contained once again upon you. This will keep you weak and most likely lead to you dying rather young, within the next three years if I were to place a guess. This whilst having the advantage of having me get out of this miserable cell earlier does mean that the Shinigami will take nearly all of remaining chakra as part of the seals function and transport me to Makai, which is not a place I would like to return to with so little power in my grasp."**

The fox actually shuddered at this point, probably at the idea of it being so weak Naruto thought almost snarkily before concentrating once more as the fox continued to speak.

"**The alternative is that you and I come to a set of agreements that mean that you live until you die of old age or the seal breaks, which would then lead to me being released into the world once more, and I would reform into my original physical form after a period of time. So it doesn't take a genius to work out that the second option is more preferable to me, even though you might live for 70-80 years like others of your accursed clan, it's better than me having to fight my way to the top of Makai to be able to leave the accursed place again."**

With the fox having stopped speaking, this time properly rather than pausing for breath, Naruto couldn't resist the urge to burst out with his questions that had been increasing in number whilst the fox had been talking to him.

"What do you mean you would go back to Makai? I thought you had just told me that the great sage had created you here? And what have you discovered about the seal then? What do you…" Naruto was about to ask the Kyuubi what it had meant when it referred to him being part of a clan, as far as he was aware he was some no name orphan and that was why he had been chosen for the sealing to take place on him. He was cut short however when a burst of killing intent mixed with a deep growl stopped him cold.

The Kyuubi leaned forwards so that its muzzle was almost touching the bars of the seal, its grin gone and a serious expression in place. **"Let us make this clear right now brat. Just because I have said that I will not hinder your growth does not mean that I will part with my knowledge for free. To make bargains is in a Kitsune soul and mine is no different, and the only things I can offer you are my knowledge and experience, as well as me willingly allowing you access to a small part of my chakra…"**

Naruto took a minute to ensure that he correctly understood what the Kyuubi was talking about and more importantly so that he could work out what risks there were associated with making bargains with the Kitsune. Crossing his arms across his chest in a serious manner, he decided to be direct about his concerns and see how the Kyuubi responded to it. "What would you want in return for this knowledge and wisdom of yours? And why would I want to use your chakra anyways? Hokage-Jiji told me that it was highly poisonous to everything it touched when there was the big battle and you were sealed, so how would using it help?" The Kyuubi looked at him for a moment before sitting back up on its haunches with an exhalation of air.

"**Well as I can assume that you will not do anything that will mess with the seals make up until you understand what it does and how, I instead wish for something a bit simpler to begin with until you learn some more about seals. But first to answer your questions on my chakra, my answer is a simple one brat. Who do you think worked to fix your spine from the damage that Kakashi had done to it? If you had been anyone else you would be crippled if not dead by now. My chakra is only poisonous and dangerous to those that I wish it to be deadly to; it is after all laced with all of my hate and anger. If we come to the right agreement you will be moved into the other category, in which only one has ever been in before now by my choice."**

Naruto nodded and decided that he could question later what Kyuubi meant by its choice, instead he could feel himself beginning to awaken, so decided to wrap this up for the moment. "Well, state your wish and I will see if I can grant it, we can settle on the price on your end at a later date as I can feel our time running short so best to finish this before I awaken."

The Kyuubi didn't move other than raise an eyebrow, though Naruto took that as a sign of surprise in regards to his willingness to bargain with it. **"Well brat, I have essentially be tossed from one container to another for almost 150 years, and let me tell you now this place." **It gestured round the sewer with a rather grim tone in its deep voice. **"Might as well be kami's own palace compared to the prisons that I have been kept in beforehand. So all I propose for now brat is that you let me experience the same sensations that you feel in the outside world, let me see, hear and touch what you experience."**

Naruto cocked his head, confused not at the request but as how the Kyuubi expected him to be able to complete what it asked. "No offence Kyuubi, but how do I do that?" The fox sighed and looked down at him with an almost pitying look as Naruto started to fade, showing that he was waking to the real world once more.

"**How do you humans get by with such substandard intellect? This is your mindscape brat, which means that I am part of your mind, so all you have to do is will it to be done and it will be done, now be gone, I wish to work in peace once more…"**

*End Flashback*

And with that last statement Naruto had awoken, and it had taken him a few minutes to remember what the fox had said as he threw off the last vestiges of sleep. When he did remember he had thought very hard about letting the fox feel, see and hear everything he did. Nothing really happened, but he was struck with a wave of satisfaction that he assumed came from the fox.

Shaking off the memories as he stepped into the large room that contained the cage and the Kyuubi, he strode forwards much faster now, coming to stop in front of the cage once more. "What do you mean Kyuubi, how did you notice this problem and I didn't? Umi was fine when I saw her and I doubt anything is going to happen to her before I get out of here again." The Kyuubi shook its head in an almost amused manner before looking him in the eye.

"**When you thought that I should see, hear and feel everything that you feel brat, I don't think you understood quite what you were doing. Even when you are asleep like now, your senses still react to outside stimuli and sensations. For example, after you went to sleep earlier the ANBU that had been watching you came and found the note that you had thought you had hidden oh so well up your sleeve. He wasn't even particularly quiet about doing it as well, so between that and the movement of the note against your arm it wasn't hard for me to work out what had happened."**

Okay, so that was how the Kyuubi knew about something he didn't Naruto thought riley as he reached up and scratched his head apologetically. "Apologies and thanks then Kyuubi…" The Kyuubi spoke angrily at him.

"**I wasn't finished yet brat, this bit is almost as important as the fact that you now might have the ANBU division on your tail as a possible traitor. Did you not notice how low your creations chakra was? I think that your rather serious injuries were transferred to your clones, and whilst it is impressive she survived, I would not advise continuing with your level of risk taking with her around."**

Naruto took a moment to process the problems that the Kyuubi had given him, as he had thought earlier there was little reason for the Kyuubi to lie to him, it would not be productive for it to do so at this fragile stage in their 'relationship' after all. He then grinned and bowed to the Kyuubi, seeing the fox stiffen out of the corner of his eye line, a little gratitude and respect might continue to go a long way here after all.

"Well then I owe you thanks again Kyuubi, as if you had not raised these points with me I would have been in great trouble. So now I have to ask what would you like in return for your advice and wisdom on the two matters that you have raised? Those as well as any you might notice in the future that I manage to miss with my subpar skills."

The fox chuckled once more, this one containing less malevolence than those it had given before now. **"Flattery will get you nowhere brat, though it was a semi-decent attempt for someone as socially inept as yourself. In regards to helping you with these types of problems, we shall consider my help to be payment for you allowing me access to your senses; after all I cannot give you help without the ability of course. Though it does mean that you will have to come up with something else to bargain my knowledge with instead brat, and I doubt you will be able to come up with something satisfactory to my standards."**

Naruto grinned sheepishly, it had been worth a try at least and it seemed that the fox was more amused than offended which was probably a good thing. Despite the fox's doubts, he thought he had a good idea about what he could do in order to bargain with the being once more, but he would give it a little more thought first before he began to enact it. "Very well Kyuubi, what do you suggest that I do to solve these problems then? And I won't accept 'rip off the seal' or 'kill everyone in Konoha' as acceptable solutions."

This caused the fox's grin to grow even as it began to talk. **"Well that's just a shame, they were my favourites. However, on a more realistic front, this is what I would advise you doing in this situation…"**

They carried on talking for what seemed like hours, and by the end of it, Naruto could say that he was confident that the plan that he and the Kyuubi had come up with for one of the two problems was fool proof, though the other he was a lot less sure about the chances of him coming out of it in one piece. They were just finishing their discussions when Naruto felt the sensation of waking overcome him once more, and he decided to give the fox a little show of good faith and also to entice it into being more forthcoming in the future.

Closing his eyes and concentrating hard, he felt the room shift around him and the Kyuubi's rather startled bark, something he would remember as blackmail for a long time to come. Opening his eyes once more he saw that his mindscape had satisfactorily altered itself to recreate a section of woodland that he had spent his youth running around and playing in as he had not been welcome in the normal children play areas.

The Kyuubi appeared to have shrunk itself in order to avoid being skewered by the numerous trees that had sprouted around it, and it looked a cross between pleased and angry. Before it could express itself however, Naruto spoke for one last time before he woke, determined to get the point of the change across for the moment. "Consider this my show of good will towards our arrangement; I am sure you will enjoy a place to run around in." And with that he was gone, leaving the mindscape clear other than a rather confused but cautiously pleased fox that began to slowly explore its surroundings with ever increasing delight.

Persona change: Yugao Uzuki

She swore that her week couldn't get any worse at this stage, with Naruto at the very centre of her slowly increasing problems. First he pulls of his prank that whilst impressively done caused both her and her subordinates a lot more work, as well as a dressing down both from the Hokage and the ANBU supreme commander for not stopping the prank effectively, despite the fact that the ANBU had been restricted from engaging Naruto on previous prank sprees on order of the Hokage.

Then after watching Naruto get punished she failed to capture a spy that had infiltrated Konoha seemingly to spy directly on the boy, leading to another chewing out and extra work for her and her ANBU teams to try and uncover the spies hiding location in the sewers. Then Naruto requests to go out and look for the members of a lost caravan, and having sent him on his way with a smile and good luck Yugao had not honestly expected him to find anything despite her words to the Hokage that were to the contrary.

So when she then heard of what had happened from Himako after the chuunin had dropped him off at the academy, Yugao had then been ordered by the supreme commander secretly to follow up on the two's suspicions that there was a mole in Konoha's ranks that was working with the bandits, as it was unlikely that the bandits were the only group that were working the slave trade in the land of fire and they might all be connected and working with the same mole. Not that Yugao minded the idea of capturing a mole who was working against Konoha, that was very much part of the job description, but it was yet another job that she had to schedule into her already busy days.

Then there came the message from the Hokage to meet him at the hospital, barely three hours after she had crawled into her apartment to get ready for her night out with a group of her chuunin and Jounin friends, including a man who her female friends felt was a good match for her despite his rather debilitating cough, a fellow sword enthusiast by the name of Gekko Hayate. The village came first however and Yugao left despite the protests of those that were present, which included Hayate amongst those upset she was somewhat pleased to note.

That pleasant feeling had evaporated when she shushined into the hospital to be met with the Hokage's grim visage outside one of the emergency rooms. She admitted there had been a couple of tears when she had been informed of little Naruto's injuries and she was all ready to hunt her old captain down and have some rather choice words with him, until the Hokage then informed her of the spy's appearance and subsequent threat that was posed to the young boy in question, something she was annoyed that had been kept from her until now.

The Hokage placed her and her best squad now solely on finding the spy and protecting Naruto from any threat that may appear whilst he was not under the protection of Kakashi. She had raised an eyebrow at this and had pointed into the emergency room without a word, disbelief that the silver haired man would be able to do the job effectively with this incident between them. However Sarutobi would not hear of it and she was left to organise her soldiers to protection duty whilst she lead some of the others out to try and find some evidence of the spy at Naruto's apartment that could be used to track down or identify the spy properly.

They had found nothing however and she had returned to her apartment absolutely exhausted, so much so that when Hayate had knocked at her door the next morning, to ask if she wanted to go out and see a film with him, she was unfortunately rather ratty with him due to lack of sleep and had ended up closing the door in the man's face so that she could go back and collapse on the bed.

She would apologise to him later and arrange something, but the news that her subordinate had brought her when she roused herself the next evening was rather worrying and had to take priority. Listening to how the ANBU agent described the encounter, it was obvious to her that the spy was now trying to make contact with Naruto for whatever reason and she had no doubt that Naruto's curious mind would be able to resist the mystery the note had provided.

She had told her agents that she would follow him to the meeting point, with her sensors on standby to track her chakra in case she was right and it was the spy in question. True enough, when Naruto had awoken, just before dawn by the doctors who were to check him and discharge him, he had rushed through the tests before changing into his normal gear and leaping out of the window even as the doctor was finishing the sentence about him being okay to leave.

She followed him at a distance, as she already knew where he was going so there was little chance of losing him. She caught up with him just in time for him to enter the training grounds, in case the spy proved to be hostile for whatever reason and she needed to step in to protect him. She paused when she saw a young kunoichi enter the training grounds rather calmly, her size and profile roughly fitting the spy's, though that could be said for many of the serving ninja in the village, so that wasn't sufficient proof.

Looking closer at the girls face Yugao realised that she looked somewhat familiar, though she could not work out where from exactly for a moment until it hit her. Realising who the girl was however didn't really help Yugao in the slightest, why would Danzo's goddaughter be spying on the Kyuubi container?

Her answer was given a moment later when Naruto ran up to her smiling. "Nee-chan, there you are. What took you so long? I have been here agesssss." The woman, who was called Nami if Yugao remembered correctly, snorted in a rather unladylike manner at this last statement before engaging Naruto in a hesitant but friendly hug.

"I doubt that Naruto-san, I bet you have been here only a few minutes at best." She paused and then looked down at him with a small smile. "It is good to see that you are better again, you looked absolutely awful in the hospital yesterday."

Naruto grinned and shook his head. "Yeah Nee-chan, what is with the secrecy thing still? I know we did it when we were younger because you couldn't be seen with me for some reason, but why do we have to do it now that I am a shinobi too?" Yugao sighed with realisation as it came to her that Nami was probably not the spy, as the level of closeness between the two of them was far too much for such a first meeting, and what Naruto said about them having kept it secret was reasonable as well, after all the Hokage would have had a fit over Naruto and someone so near to Danzo associating so closely.

Deciding that now was the appropriate time to step in and reveal to Naruto several things that Nami had probably been hiding from him, Yugao leapt down from the tree she was in and into the training ground, whilst pulsing her chakra twice in succession to tell the sensors that they were clear to leave, noting that both Naruto and Nami stiffened at her appearance, though Nami seemed a lot more on edge that Naruto did, who waved sheepishly at her as she walked up to the two of them.

"Hi Yugao-chan, I guess the cat is out of the bag now ne?" Shaking her head at his seemingly indestructible cheeriness, Yugao gave him a small smile before turning to Nami and looking piercingly at her.

"Yes Naruto, I think it is. Now do you two mind explaining why you act like old friends even though I have never heard of you from Naruto, Nami-san? I imagine you are responsible from what Naruto has said thus far, so do you want to explain the details to him, or shall I?" Nami didn't overly react to the threat that Yugao had just given her, though that was to be expected from someone who was raised by the man who hated emotions in shinobi on duty.

"I will explain ANBU-san, I am afraid I do not know your full name and I would feel uncomfortable using the name that Naruto-san has given you in case that is a pet name of his, he does seem to have a habit of doing so I have noticed, certainly in my case it seems." Nami's response surprised Yugao slightly and she could merely do more than nod her head as Naruto butted in childishly.

"Nee-chan! That's not fair, you told me to call you that after all. And Yugao-chan is Yugao, she is awesome enough that she doesn't need a nickname like Kaka-baka does." Both kunoichi giggled at this statement before Nami nodded and turned back to Yugao.

"So I should refer to you as Yugao-san then? I was going to inform Naruto-san of everything today anyways, as I do not wish for people like you to assume that I am befriending him for the wrong reasons. Despite your concerns, my godfather actually forbid me from revealing the information that I am about to reveal to Naruto, so you needn't be concerned about his or my motives here." That will remain to be seen Yugao thought, but she gestured for Nami to continue in order to remove the now confused look that was on Naruto's face.

"The reason that I wished to keep our association together a secret Naruto-san is that there are those that think I would use our bond for the wrong reasons due to who I was raised by. If they had known of our meetings I am sure they would have stopped you from seeing me, probably by insinuating all sorts of lies about me and my godfather." That last statement was firmly aimed at Yugao, who had to admit that she probably would have told Naruto every dark rumour and half-truth she knew about Danzo's illusive root organisation in order to stop him meeting with Nami if she had known about the two of them.

She had to step in and state some facts before Nami could turn Naruto completely to her side. "True, but Danzo is known as the 'war hawk' for a reason, if he had his way we would probably still be at war with Kumo and Iwa." Naruto didn't seem to be listening to her however, and was now looking at her with a slightly unnerving expression.

"Yugao-chan, you wouldn't do that sort of thing to me just because of what one of my friends is associated with would you?" She caught herself halfway through nodding that she would as she realised where that question was leading her, but Naruto had seen the movement and read that as proof enough of her guilt. "Why would you do that Yugao? After all that you have seen me go through because of my day of birth, you should know as well as I do the damage that such ideas can cause, and the fact you would wish to do the same to me about one of my few friends… I think I need to go."

And with that he was gone into the trees, and Yugao found she didn't have the heart to go after him. He had a point; she had judged Nami just because of who she was and who raised her rather than even try talking to her first, which is how Naruto had been dealt with the entirety of his childhood. She was surprised when Nami's voice spoke from behind her, Yugao having turned to watch Naruto leave.

"We should go after him Yugao-san, it would not be advisable to leave him in that state running round the village, and anyone could set him off by accident." Yugao nodded hesitantly, but as they took off in the trees following Naruto's obvious trail, she couldn't help but ask a question that was bugging her about the situation.

"Why help me with this Nami-san, after all I did just essentially accuse you of paramilitary activities with your godfather." Which was paramount to treason in Konoha's laws, especially seeing as it would have involved some of the Hokage's ninjas, who were his and his alone to command.

Nami shrugged and smiled slightly at her. "I do not fault you for your predisposition towards me, it is one that my godfather cultivated for himself and I have to live with that. Which is why mine and Naruto's cases are different, even though he doesn't realise it. I was given the choice of learning my godfather's ways when my parents died, with all the possible impacts made available to me. So in a way I brought your treatment of me upon myself. Naruto however never had a choice, and that is why I am helping you, in order to make sure that he does not alienate one of his true friends and helpers on a misunderstanding."

Yugao nodded in understanding and approval, already her view of the other woman changing as they talked, before both of them upped their speed and disappeared from view in a flash, in order to catch up with their little friend.

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

He had been sat there, on top of the Sandaime's head of the Hokage monument, for less than a minute when they caught up with him. Though he knew that either of them could have overtaken him mere minutes into their pursuit of him if they had wanted or felt the need to. He was glad that they hadn't done so; the run had done him good in calming him down and allowing him to think. He knew that Yugao had only intended to show that she wanted to protect him with her words, but they still hurt on several levels that he didn't want to admit to yet.

It also gave him chance to think over the encounter with his mysterious helper, who Yugao had referred to as Nami, and what he could work out from what had been said by the two kunoichi. Nami had certainly shown a lot more emotion than he had expected from their first meeting, but she was still rather difficult for him to deal with properly without arousing suspicion from Yugao at any point.

It seemed to have worked however as the two kunoichi landed on the head of the Hokage monument at roughly the same time, though Nami seemed to be rather out of breath from having kept up with Yugao's pace over that distance. Yugao stepped forwards cautiously but without even turning around Naruto spoke to reassure her. "It's okay Yugao-chan, I understand why you would do such a thing, you only meant me the best I am sure."

Rather than let it simply slide however Yugao seem to decide to be blunt about her feelings for once, something she was not prone for doing. "No it is not okay Naruto, I realise why you would be upset and it is a perfectly good reason to be angry with me. I promise I will never do something like that to you or anyone else, ever."

There was a silence for a few moments which Naruto was perfectly fine with, though he could hear Yugao shift a little uncomfortably as if waiting for his approval on her words, though why she cared that much he couldn't really fathom. In the end it was Nami that broke the silence with her own statement.

"So now that you have worked out your little issue, well once Naruto has given his approval over your apology, then would it be possible for me to find out what you have been up to Naruto-san? The rumour mill is rather wild with different tales of what you have been up to, all claiming to have come from the horses mouth as it were."

Naruto blushed slightly at the insinuation that Nami used, even though he was sure she was perfectly aware of what he had been up to and what had happened, she just seemed like that sort of person. He stood up and turned to smile at the two of them before speaking to Yugao. "It's fine Yugao-chan, though I am heartened by what you have said, and I will tell you all of what's happened over ramen if thats okay with you nee-chan? It's hardly like we need to keep things a secret anymore right?"

Nami shook her head at him before glancing at Yugao piercingly. "Well that all depends on what Yugao-san thinks is appropriate for the situation. Given who you are and the affections that the Sandaime seems to hold for you, it would not be good if word of you meeting in secret with me got out in the wrong way." Not to mention him being the container of the 9 tailed fox and currently under heavy guard due to her spying on him, but who was he to break up her little guilt trip with something as boring as the truth.

Yugao seemed to be debating it in her head for a moment and Naruto thought they were in the clear, but then she shook her head. "Sorry you two, if it was just me I would be okay letting you keep quiet, but after finding the note it is common knowledge that Naruto was meeting someone here and that means this will have to be included in the report to the Hokage. Though seeing as you two have known each other for ages I am sure that whilst the Hokage may not like it there is nothing that will come of it, as long as you don't let your godfather too close to him of course Nami-san."

Yugao looked apologetically at him when she finished speaking, but he shrugged and gestured at Nami. "Don't look at me, it wasn't me that wanted the deception in the first place. She is the one to talk to methinks." Nami shrugged as well, obviously this was not the worst case scenario she had expected when Yugao had appeared into the clearing with them, though he imagined if it had been any other ANBU it wouldn't have been as easy to deceive them so that was a good thing.

"I imagined that this would happen at some stage, though I never expected to be jumped by an ANBU of all things, is there a reason you were following Naruto around? Because it can't have been because of me as you didn't know we were friends." It was hard to maintain his usual composure as he listened to her subtlety, misleading Yugao with her words even whilst telling the truth.

Yugao shook her head and her posture became a bit more guarded as she evaded the question. "That is nothing for you to be concerned about Nami-san, but I must now leave to meet with my team and inform them of your acquaintance to each other so that no one tries to apprehend you as part of our investigation. Remember that your team is to meet at the Hokage tower at 9am Naruto-kun, you wouldn't want to be late." She came and gave him a quick hug, which was surprising from her but he supposed she was still trying to show that she was sorry for earlier, before she performed two hand seals and disappeared in a shushin.

He and Nami sat there for a moment in silence before Nami nodded her head, smile gone from her face and a serious expression completely overcoming it. "She is gone, it is lucky that she was not suspicious of our little act there, very well done for someone with no formal training Naruto-san. I did not expect you to be watch quite that closely I will admit, if she had been a sensor it would not have worked however."

Naruto had to admit he was a bit shocked by the change in personality, but he supposed she would be more like this when not trying to act a cover. "So you are the one from my apartment? I must admit that you're nicer to meet when you are not threatening me with a blade." Much prettier than he had imagined as well, her face almost typical of a pretty woman, thin but elegant with slightly rare green eyes, but not so much different as to stick out as some of the Kunoichi found themselves struggling with on infiltration missions as people recognised and remembered them easily when asked.

He didn't mention this little point however, somehow he knew that this woman wouldn't appreciate it, so when she simply nodded her head he decided to ask another rather pressing question instead. "So why reveal yourself to me? And in the manner that you did as well, it was hardly subtle and you must have known that they would have been suspicious."

This actually elicited a grin from her as she seemed to spend a moment formulating her response before answering him. "That was the point Naruto-san, they were meant to follow you and find us meeting up, though I am glad you were able to come up with that ruse by yourself as it made it easier to complete the act. As to why I have revealed myself to you, well it is so that you and I can meet and I can help you with your plan without risking being caught by your guards anymore. It was the most logical solution to the problem of the increased surveillance that has been place upon you."

If that was true, which he couldn't be sure about because she seemed better at lying than anyone Naruto had ever known, then there had been more thought put into this little encounter than he had thought was possible. He then decided to try riling her up a little as it had been so hard to do last time when he had been so nervous. "So can I call you Nami-chan then? And are you still up for that ramen."

It looked like he had hit an interesting nerve as her eye twitched for a moment before morphing into a devious smile. "Of course you can Naruto-san, I will leave it up to you too explain to your ramen waitress why you are taking another girl out a 'date' this morning however." The implication hit him and he blushed slightly before cursing, this woman was good damn it.

"Fine you win Nami-san, I won't call you chan if you don't imply this is a date to Ayame-chan, I have enough women on my... Tenten-chan! I need to find her before going to see the Hokage, otherwise she probably really will have my head for missing out on our training." Nami quirked her head to the side in a questioning manner.

"Is this the girl who you had one of your shadow clones imitate? She should be relatively easy to find." Naruto looked at her, what was she talking about? He didn't officially know where she lived, and it would be really bad if she thought he was stalking her. Nami smiled slightly again and pointed to the north. "It sounded like she is on Maito-san's genin team, and they are up every morning early and away from central Konoha on the Hokage's orders, something about noise complaints from all of the civilians around the city outskirts complaining about 'youthful noises.' At Naruto's slightly confused nod she leapt off with him following behind, unable to shake the feeling that he was about to enter a situation that he would never be able to forget...

**AN: Right, this was a long time in the making, sorry for the long wait guys, but I had many issues over the last few months that have really impacted on my ability and will to write. I hope that this ridiculously long chapter makes up for all of that, once I finally got started again I found myself unable to find a suitable finishing point that would fit where I wanted to go. **

**I have realised how slow this story is going, and if you guys are all waiting for me to rush to the wave mission etc then i am afraid I am probably going to disappoint. With Naruto's involvement in the bandit incident, things will be changing quite quickly in what happens to team 7 and the other rookie teams, though how will be covered properly in the next chapter (Hopefully, if I don't get distracted with an interesting side arc again...)**

**Please Review or pm me, I like to hear what people think of my story, and this chapter might get re-done again if anyone manages to notice any major flaws in it that I have missed. Hope you enjoyed it Ja Ne!**


	16. The first mission revealed

_Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:_

"_Fine you win Nami-san, I won't call you chan if you don't imply this is a date to Ayame-chan, I have enough women on my... Tenten-chan! I need to find her before going to see the Hokage, otherwise she probably really will have my head for missing out on our training." Nami quirked her head to the side in a questioning manner._

"_Is this the girl who you had one of your shadow clones imitate? She should be relatively easy to find." Naruto looked at her, what was she talking about? He didn't officially know where she lived, and it would be really bad if she thought he was stalking her. Nami smiled slightly again and pointed to the north. "It sounded like she is on Maito-san's genin team, and they are up every morning early and away from central Konoha on the Hokage's orders, something about noise complaints from all of the civilians around the city outskirts complaining about 'youthful noises.'" At Naruto's slightly confused nod she leapt off with him following behind, unable to shake the feeling that he was about to enter a situation that he would never be able to forget..._

Chapter 16: The first mission revealed and Developments

It took them five minutes to travel to the training ground administrators office, a small building to the northwest of the Hokage mountain which was used as the booking point for the main training grounds that Konoha maintained for its ninja to use. Of course, not all ninja could be bothered with the paperwork of officially booking a training ground and instead just used the 'communal' training grounds that were available to all ninja of any rank. Naruto had been fascinated to find this out and had stated his improved opinion of Kakashi who he assumed had actually gone and booked the training ground for them, which was more than Naruto had expected possible from the lazy jounin given what he had seen thus far.

His newfound respect was shot down a moment later when Nami responded simply that all genin teams that pass their jounin instructors tests are given a training ground of there own for 6 months without having to do any paperwork, and that the booking of the training ground was handled by the academy rather than by the jounin sensei in question, meaning that Kakashi had not done anything and wouldn't have to do any work on behalf of the team for some time. The Information was still useful for Naruto to know, as it meant that he could book a training ground for his own private training if he ever wished, and it also meant that it took them no time at all to find out where Tenten's team, officially team 9 were based, their sensei having booked one of the outermost training grounds for the next 6 months.

Looking at the map that was in the office, Naruto was surprised how much land Konoha technically comprised when the training grounds were included, it would take him easily an hour to get from one side to the other even with the forced speed training that he had been doing over the last few days. The training ground that Team 9 was based at was to the North of the Hokage mountain, meaning that it was about a forty minute round trip for him to get there and then back to the Hokage tower for the meeting that the Hokage had asked him to attend at 9am. This meant he could spend about half an hour with the team before he would need to leave, he just hoped that was enough time to calm Tenten down, in case she reacted in the same violent way that she had with his clone.

Leaving the office Maki smiled at him before speaking in the same professional tone she had been using when they were out of earshot of anyone else. "Now I must take my leave, I have a report to make before I head to the tower for missions. I assume you can get yourself to the training ground by yourself?" He nodded, not liking the glint in her eye, which seemed to indicate that there was something she was not telling him that she was finding highly amusing, but he knew asking about it would not get him anywhere so he saved himself the effort of losing another conversation with a girl. Instead he stepped forwards and pulled her in a hug, smirking as he felt her stiffen slightly at the contact, try and out prank him would she?

"Thanks for helping me Nami-chan, I will make it up to you at some point I swear. How about we save that ramen until you are back from whatever mission you have?" She nodded slowly and then extricated herself from his arms with surprising skill, the light colouring on her cheeks the only indication that he had managed to affect her with his actions.

"Of course Naruto-san, I will come by your apartment on my return so that we can discuss things and I can tell you some more about myself, if you wish to know of course?" It was obviously a loaded question and he was more than happy enough to acquiesce to the subtle insistence in her tone.

"Sure thing Nami-chan, I always want to know everything about my friends and I am sure that Umi-chan would love to meet you, after all if we are going to be hanging out together all the time its time I introduced you to the others." Nami's smile widened for a moment and he could not work out why, but she waved goodbye and disappeared into the trees before he could ask about it any further. Grumbling about annoying anti-social kunoichi Naruto readied himself before taking off into the trees himself, heading North as fast as he could, he would like to also be able to fit breakfast in before getting the Hokage tower.

He almost surprised himself with his speed when he actually paid attention to it, obviously Himako forcing him to run to his limit too keep up with her for so long had helped him with his speed, not that he would willingly submit himself to that kind of training again if he could help it. He made good progress through the training grounds, only having to move around two of them as they were obviously occupied, the last thing he wanted to do was be caught in the crossfire. He arrived at what he thought was the training ground he was aiming for, though as he entered he couldn't see any activity that would indicate that team 9 were present.

Stepping through into the wooded area of the training ground he was about to call out to see if he would get a response when a hand covered his mouth and he was pulled behind a tree, a familiar voice whispering in his ear being the only thing that stopped his reflexes from going on overdrive to try and escape. "Don't ruin things now Naruto, this is a training exercise and I really want to win this time." The grip over his mouth tightened as Tenten's voice hardened slightly "And then I am sure you can explain to me why you didn't turn up to our training as you promised, understand?" Naruto nodded as best he could considering the hold she had his head in and after a moment longer she released him, though he was still trapped between the tree and her as she looked around cautiously. "It's a game of hide and seek mixed with capture the flag, me versus my two teammates, so if you can produce solid clones as you claimed that might prove to be really handy at this point."

Naruto couldn't help but smirk as she finished explaining, this sounded exactly like the sort of exercise he would be good at. "What's the target and where is it? And do you have to be the one to grab it or do you just have to end up with it?" Tenten quirked an eyebrow but didn't voice the obvious question about what he was planning, simply waiting for him to continue, leaving him to sigh slightly in order to explain. "Right, well here is what I had in mind..."

Timeskip 15 minutes

Naruto was grinning despite the pain he felt in his now limp left arm, courtesy of the chakra infused strikes of Hyuuga Neji, the rookie of the year from the previous years genin graduates. The plan that he had worked through with Tenten had been a simple one where she drew her teammates away from the flag she was meant to grab with the help of some of his clones, before he went in under a henge to grab the flag which he would then bring and give to her, completing the exercise. Looking over at Tenten who was stood, flag in hand with grin on her face, he reflected that even if everything hadn't gone quite to plan, it had worked out fairly well in the end regardless.

*Flashback*

Naruto looked into the clearing that Tenten had informed him about, the flag clearly visible in the centre of it, around which were stood Tenten's two teammates, Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji both of whom Naruto remembered from his second attempt at graduation as very strong taijutsu users, which in this case would be an advantage for him and Tenten as they would not be able to keep his clones at bay very easily. A kunai whistled into the clearing aimed for Neji who batted it away easily with one hand from his sitting position, opening his eyes as he looked in the direction the kunai had come from. "That was foolish Tenten, you have now revealed your position to us and fate dictates that you will lose this exercise, Lee lets go."

The green clad boy looked a little unsure at the order, looking round the clearing for a moment before raising his question. "But what if this is a trap or diversion my youthful rival? If both of us leave the flag then Tenten might be able to slip round us to get it, meaning that we would be left with a very unyouthful defeat." Neji simply turned his gaze to Lee with a frown. "She is not fast enough to get away from either of us, so as long as we do not let her slip away this will be over with shortly and I can get back to some actual useful training." Lee still looked a little disgruntled but said nothing as the two of them moved towards the trees Tenten had fired from at impressive speed.

Once the two were gone from sight the clone that Naruto had created started making its way into the clearing and had nearly made it when Neji suddenly reappeared at the edge of the clearing, glaring imperiously at the transformed clone. "Step away from the flag whoever you are, no animal has that much chakra so it was obvious what you were doing when you entered the range of my byakugan." Naruto kicked himself for forgetting about the Hyuuga clans Dojutsu, he was on a team with the only remaining Uchiha, he should be more prepared for facing people like this. The clone burst into action now that its cover had been blown, breaking its henge and sprinting for the flag, reaching it even as Neji started running towards it. It was clear the clone was not going to be able to outrun Neji, so it did the next best thing which was to throw the flag like a javelin towards Naruto before turning to face the oncoming hyuuga.

The clone was hopelessly outmatched, but he managed to slow the hyuuga for a couple of seconds, which allowed Naruto to leap out of the tree and intercept the flag before it disappeared into the trees and form the seal he needed for his ultimate escape tactic. "Kage Bushin no jutsu!" Dozens of clones burst into existence around him, each armed with a flag of there own to add to the Hyuugas difficulty in determining the real Naruto. All of the Naruto's lowered the flags like spears towards the other side of the clearing, through the Hyuuga incidentally, before charging forwards in one mass. Naruto's idea proved a good one, as though Neji was faster and more skilled than he was, he could still only take down so many clones so quickly, allowing almost a score of them to make it through to the forest on the other side.

This was where Naruto ran into a little problem, which was that he had no idea where Tenten was, and Neji was hardly going to give him time to find her. He created another forty clones and had them spread out to look for signs of fighting, but then Neji was amongst them and he had to move quickly to avoid becoming the Hyuuga's focus. One of the scouting clones yelled out that he had found a trail before turning to engage the rapidly approaching Neji, who dispelled the intervening clones in two or three strikes despite their use of the flags as polearms and spears in an attempt to make him keep his distance. Without speaking a word most of the remaining clones turned and charged Neji in an attempt to slow him down whilst Naruto and three other clones moved towards the tracks, the signs of combat becoming clearer with disturbed earth and kunai littering the ground.

His sixth sense screamed at him and he dodged to the right, though too slowly to completely avoid the lunging strike of Neji who had stormed through the clone assault to try and slow the escapees. The strike hit his arm just below the shoulder joint, causing his entire left arm to go numb and flop listlessly to the side. He didn't have to worry about a continued assault however, as the clones that were meant to be slowing Neji dogpiled the Hyuuga a moment later, allowing Naruto to flee away before he managed to use Kawamiri to escape the clones and come after him again. It took another two minutes, but he was soon able to hear the sounds of fighting in the distance and with a quiet command the three clones took off ahead, allowing him to follow at a safe distance. In the clearing Lee was dodging around attacks from Tenten, who had gotten a Naginata from somewhere and was swinging it with great skill, keeping the faster boy on the defensive. The three clones charged into the clearing, surprising Lee enough to make him cartwheel backwards away from the attackers, allowing Naruto to sprint into the clearing and hand the flag to Tenten before Lee finished off the three clones, leaving her with a big grin on her face even as Neji reached the tree line, scowl set upon his face.

*End Flashback*

Still trying to shake some movement back into his left arm, Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud voice bellowed out from behind him. "A very youthful win Tenten-chan, using a friend of yours in the exercise was very clever, especially one with such interesting clones!" Turning round, Naruto found himself looking at one of the oddest people he had seen thus far in his life in Konoha, and that included his porn reading cyclops of a sensei. Taller than every other person that Naruto had met with a bowl cut of black hair that seemed to mix indiscriminately with the mans gigantic eyebrows, the green spandex outfit only added to the bizarreness of the mans posturing, stood as he was with a giant sparkling grin on his face and thumb up and outstretched in Tenten's direction.

Neji scoffed and pointed accusingly at Naruto. "He had no right joining in that exercise, Tenten wouldn't have won if he hadn't, fate dictated it." Now Naruto remembered how much of an annoying prick Neji was pretty much all of the time, but before Naruto could respond the man turned to Neji with a frown on his face. "Neji, do not let your flames of youth be diminished by being such a sore loser, this will teach you not to be so overconfident next time. If you had followed Lee's youthful suggestion then this would not have happened." Lee suddenly appeared next to the man with a giant smile on his face. "That advice is so youthful, Gai-sensei." The now identified Gai and Lee suddenly started hugging each other, shouting loudly each others name as a sunset appeared in the background and the training ground was converted into a sandy beach with lapping waves not far from where they stood.

Thoroughly weirded out, Naruto stared in horror for a few moments before Tenten grabbed his hand and pulled him away from them, breaking whatever genjutsu they had placed and allowing him to turn and face her, eyebrow twitching slightly as he gestured over his shoulder at the two of them. "Does that happen often, you don't seem to be affected by it at all." Tenten nodded, shuddering slightly as she did so before replying. "More often than I would like if I am honest, but Gai-sensei is a very good teacher despite his...habits. However, I dragged you away so that you could answer the questions I asked earlier, and if I don't like the answers I can always put you back to watch them some more, they can be like this for almost twenty minutes sometimes..."

She trailed off and he gulped audibly at the smirk she was wearing, raising his hands appeasingly. "Lets not be hasty Tenten-chan, I have a very good reason for not being able to come to your training session I swear." And as such the story of the previous days test came out, shortened of course otherwise he would be late for the Hokage. He noticed that Gai and Lee had stopped hugging in order to listen to him speaking whilst Neji had moved off to the other side of the training field in order to train, but he continued speaking, happy to see that Tenten's look had softened as he got to his injury and hospital stay and when the story drew to an end she reached up and patted his shoulder with a smile on her face. "That definitely counts as a good reason, though I somehow find it hard to believe that you managed to wound a jounin during your genin test, I have never heard of that happening before."

Gai interrupted before Naruto could reply, his giant grin back on his face. "You are the one that injured my eternal rival? He refused to tell me how it happened but it was the talk of the jounin lounge yesterday evening, that is very impressive for a fresh genin, you must spar with my youthful students so that we can measure your flames of youth!" Tenten was now gazing at him in shock as he reached up to scratch the back of his head in an embarrassed fashion. "Unfortunately I can't right now Gai-san, the hokage has requested my team to report to him at the tower at 9 and I still have not had breakfast, so it will have to wait until later." Gai seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding.

"Very well, we shall head to the Hokage tower as well to pick up the days missions, the earlier we arrive the better after all, Tenten I know you have not eaten this morning, why don't you go with Naruto-san whilst Neji and Lee clean up the training grounds as a reminder for them to be more youthful next time." Lee, rather than looking disheartened beamed at this statement, and started spouting off stuff about youthful challenges, though Naruto didn't catch what he said as Tenten dragged him away hurriedly. "Trust me, you do not want to be there when Lee gets in a mood like this, its not pretty to watch. Now, where did you want to go for breakfast?"

Contrary to popular belief, Naruto did not just live off ramen all of the time, though there were times where he really wished he could. Whilst the Ichikaru ramen shop were the only civilians that did not try and overcharge him or give him bad food, the ninja owned establishments such as the Akimichi bakeries and food outlets were far more fair with him and as such it was those places that he usually frequented for food when Ichikaru was closed or he was in hurry. He directed them to one of his favourites, a small bakery shop that made wonderful breakfast sandwiches and pastries. To his surprise Tenten ordered almost half as much as he did, which was lot in comparison to the food he saw Sakura and the other girls in his class eat on a daily basis.

She obviously noticed his shocked look and chuckled at him. "You realise how much energy I have to expend every day just to try and keep up with Gai and Lee right? I definitely couldn't get by with the 'diets' that some of the other girls have used in the past, i would collapse by lunchtime every day if I tried." He blushed slightly at having been so obvious with his surprise even as they grabbed the food they had ordered and moved to a table. It took him a minute or two but Naruto realised that he was still trying to employ the table manners that he had been utilising the other night at Ayame's instruction, but seeing that Tenten wasn't particularly rushing her food, he decided to try and keep the manners going, he needed to be a good role model for the twins now after all.

They finished breakfast with time to spare, Naruto ordering some more pastries for later and made their way over to the hokage tower, talking with each other primarily about weapons as that seemed to be a favoured topic of Tentens, though he didn't mind as he was learning a lot about the different types and styles of weapons as they talked. Arriving at the tower, Naruto was surprised to see Sakura and Sasuke already there, and from the looks of it they had been there for quite some time, Sakura looking like she was ready to drop off to sleep at any moment. Spotting him she seemed at a loss whether to shout at him or ignore him, seeming to compromise in the end by waving weakly at him. Walking up to them he waved back at Sakura with a smile before nodding at Sasuke, who returned it sluggishly as Sakura started the talking with small sigh. "Naruto, where have you been? Sensei said we were meant to be meeting here at 7 for some reason."

Naruto thought about it for a moment and then realised what must have happened, doing his best not to grin as he replied. "Sorry Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei didn't tell me anything, the Hokage told me he wanted to see our team here at 9... You haven't been here for nearly two hours have you? I wouldn't put it past Kakashi sensei telling you to be here early so that he could be late for us but not the Hokage." Sakura's face shot up at this and an angry look entered her eyes, though it disappeared as she sighed and leant back against the wall she had been leaning on when Naruto had arrived.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised after the last two days, he is such a lazy sensei after all. Sorry Naruto for not being more conversational, but I am not in the best of moods. It is good to see you properly recovered after yesterday, the med-nins must have worked their asses off to get you recovered properly in such a short time." Naruto chuckled and nodded his head, best to let her think that for the moment at least, she probably wouldn't be able to handle the truth right now. He ended up sacrificing his pastries to Sakura who revealed that she hadn't managed to grab breakfast with the early meeting time. It took a little convincing to get her to consume the 'fattening devil food' as she had termed it when he had first brought them out, but her rumbling stomach had eventually won over her reservations and she wolfed two of them down at a pace that would have impressed Chouji if he had been present.

She had rather hesitantly thanked Naruto for the food and promised to pay him for it, causing him to reach up and scratch the back of his head a little awkwardly at the offer. As if sensing he was going to refuse the money offer she became a bit more serious and grabbed his hand. "Don't try and be a gentleman here Naruto, I know you need the money more than I do at the moment, especially seeing as we seem to have to waste two hours every day waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up." As if on cue Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves nearby, eyesmile in place as he looked at the four of them, noting the slightly hardened look on Tenten's face as Sakura hastily let go of Naruto's hand and hid it behind her back. "Good morning little ones, though I notice that there is one more of you than I expected, who is your friend Naruto-kun?" Naruto just shrugged, he knew that trying to talk right now wasn't worth it, not until...

"YOU'RE LATE!" There it was, he had seen Sakura building up for the shout so he had waited to let her get it out of her system at Kakashi rather than at him which would probably have happened if he had tried talking. He raised his hand as Kakashi started to respond and smiled at him as he waved off the excuses. "Kakashi-sensei, don't bother its really not worth the effort as I know we were meant to be meeting the Hokage at 9, so trying to claim otherwise will just annoy those two. And this is Tenten, who is a member of his team." He pointed over his shoulder as he finished, having spotted the approaching dust cloud surrounding two figures in green.

Kakashi turned and his eye widened even as the two figures came to a stop in front of him, Gai giving a wide smile as he gave another thumbs up, an action that Naruto got the feeling was a particular favourite of the green mans. "My eternal rival, it is good to see you and your youthful students here so early! Your student Naruto inspired me to get my team starting their days missions early as well, I will not let you overcome me so easily! Whoever gets their mission done first today wins another round of our eternal challenge." Kakashi seemed to have calmed down slightly now, having drawn out his favourite orange book and was looking at it whilst Gai had been talking. When Gai finished he looked up and eye smiled once more at Gai. "Sorry Gai, did you say something?"

Gai turned red in the face and danced on the spot yelling about his hip rival, Tenten leaning in to whisper into Naruto's ear. "Are all high level ninja as weird as these guys?" Naruto thought for a moment, he certainly wouldn't say that Yugao was weird, and whilst the Hokage read porn and smoked heavily that was hardly out of the norm for ninja, unlike Kakashi he at least did it in private. He shook his head and replied, not knowing that he was cursing himself for the foreseeable future with his reply. "No, I don't think so, and I doubt many ninja can have as bad a habits as these two seem too..." Without looking at the two jounin he turned to the others, noting that Neji had arrived at some point after the other two and was standing off to one side looking stoic as he always did. "Shall we go inside, it is nearly 9 o'clock and you guys can get your mission whilst we talk to the Hokage."

He grabbed Tenten's hand and started walking inside, not noting the slight blush on Tenten's face when he did so. Kakashi seemed to have been listening to him however and turned to face him with a small eye smile. "Taking the lead already Naruto-kun? It's almost like you don't want me to be on the team with all the awesome training I can give you." Naruto recognised the jibe as what it was, having had Ayame make similar comments about his ramen habits at times, and managed not to give in to his inner desire to start jumping up and down at the thought of training. Instead he decided to be a bit cheeky and once again do something that Kakashi had done, turning to the man with a small smile and asking.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei, did you just say something?" The shocked look on Kakashi's face as well as the giggles from the two girls present more than made up for any punishment the man would come up with later he was sure. Kakashi obviously decided to quit whilst he was ahead and started moving into the Hokage tower, the rest of them following behind him talking amongst themselves for the most part, though Neji and Sasuke seemed to have devolved into a staring contest as they walked, neither missing a step or struggling to avoid any obstacles or people that were in their path as they climbed the steps to the third floor where the mission hall was and where they had been told to meet the Hokage.

It was a fairly large room, enough to fit a dozen desks around the edges with space left in the middle for the teams to move from one to the other depending on their needs. There were already several jounin or chuunin at various desks in the hall talking with the administrators on the other side of the desk about missions, though the big surprise was that the Hokage himself was sat behind one of the desks at the far end, and he noticed their arrival with a smile, calling out to the two teams as they approached. "Team 7 you are right on time, and you have brought team nine with you? That is quite fortuitous. Both teams over here, you are just what I needed for this mission." Reaching the desk everyone bowed in respect to the Hokage, Naruto deciding to try and be a bit more serious after the results of the prank.

Looking up he saw the Hokage quickly cover a small frown with a smile at what he had done, but the man had set the line between them so Naruto was going to stick to it whether he liked it or not. The Hokage faced all of them and grabbed a scroll on his desk. "I have a specific mission for team 7 that i was not prepared to send them on alone considering their lack of experience, which is why Gai's team will be part of the mission as well." Neji scoffed and stepped forwards waving dismissively at team 7. "Why should we need to accompany them on this mission if they are not experienced enough for it? We can complete this mission by ourselves Hokage-sama, I am sure that there is some d-rank that these rookies can complete instead as I refuse to babysit them."

Gai stepped forwards to drag Neji backwards, and even Naruto was slightly shocked at the blatant disrespect that Neji was showing to the old man by questioning his orders, even he wouldn't have done that in front of everyone, or at least he didn't think he would. The Hokage waved him off however and smiled at Neji in the same way that Iruka would deal with a petulant first year at the academy. "The reason that team 7 will be taking this mission Neji-san is because the client specifically asked for one of their team to be on the mission, and I am loathe to break up a team so soon after their formation. So seeing as they need to go on the mission and you refuse to 'babysit' them as I think you said it, I will find another team to go in your place and I can give you the tora mission for the day, one with your vaunted experience and skill should have no difficulty with the task no?"

Gai stepped forwards and gripped Neji's shoulder firmly in warning as the giant of a man spoke quickly to stop the situation escalating any further. "No need Hokage-sama, I assure you that my team are more than up for the mission you have assigned us. I will talk with them later to ensure they know what is expected of them in these situations. What is the mission and when does it begin?" He stepped back, dragging firmly a furious Neji with him, though the Hyuuga said nothing as the Hokage replied. "Of course Gai-san, the mission is an escort mission to the capital of the land of Rice and I will inform the employer to meet you at the western gate in at half past ten, that should be enough time for you to pack for a week long mission or so. Kakashi as it was your team that was requested, I will give you the mission statement, make sure you are not late this time..." The Hokage trailed off and Kakashi nodded lazily. "Of course Hokage-sama, I will make sure that we are all there on time."

Naruto and Sakura chuckled slightly at the irony of the statement and even Sasuke produced a smirk but none of them said anything as they bowed to the hokage and turned to leave the tower, Gai pulling his team aside for that talk that he had promised them which would most probably be directed at Neji for the most part. They were just leaving the tower when they ran into Hinata and a beautiful tall raven haired woman with red eyes who were waiting at the entrance of the tower. The woman called out to Kakashi as they approached, her eyes passing over the group in an assessing manner. "Good morning Kakashi, got your teams first mission already? I didn't think that after yesterday's happenings your team would be ready for some time." A boisterous voice heralded the arrival of Kiba as he landed in the courtyard in front of the woman. "Yeah, after Naruto got himself in hospital like the dobe he is I am surprised that he is in any condition for a mission."

Before Naruto could gear himself up to retort he was surprised when Sakura stepped forwards, waving her fist threateningly at the dog owning ninja. "And what would you know about that Kiba-baka, Naruto managed to catch Kakashi-sensei off guard and injure him, which is probably a lot more than you can say you managed in your test." The two jounin had moved to the side at this point, talking with each other quietly as the genin continued to stare off at each other, well Kiba against Sakura and Naruto anyways. Hinata stepped in between the three of them trying to diffuse the situation. "Now Kiba-kun, lets not start something here, I wouldn't want Kurenai-sensei to be angry with our behaviour."

Shino's voice spoke up as he stepped from the shadows behind team 7, causing Naruto to jump slightly and spin round to face him in a defensive stance. "That is true enough Hinata-san, Kiba you do need to be less brash about things, I would have thought Kurenai-sensei knocking you out twice yesterday with genjutsu would have taught you that. But he does have a point, with Naruto-sans injuries I am surprised that you are capable of performing on a mission to your fullest so soon." Naruto shrugged, he assumed that nobody knew the full extent of his injuries here other than Kakashi and probably Kurenai, so he simply responded with. "Medics are awesome, they healed me up and cleared me this morning, I am as right as rain! And besides Kiba, I have had worse injuries than that before, this was nothing."

Whilst not entirely true, it relaxed the tension somewhat between the teams for a few seconds before Kurenai's raised voice brought the attention back to the two jounin. "A C-rank! It's your first day as a team, surely there has been some mistake?" Kakashi shook his head and then pointed at Naruto. "Afraid not Kurenai-san, the Hokage gave us and Gai's team this mission personally so there is no mistake. And having read the mission request I think young Naruto is the one who got us this mission." This brought all eyes resting firmly on Naruto once more, though Sakura seemed to realise why after a few moments and snapped her fingers. "An escort mission to the land of Rice, our team specifically requested? You are probably right Kakashi-sensei, it is probably to do with the caravan people that Naruto saved from those bandits."

Never let it be said that Sakura was in anyway slow, and with her being the only one to know the full story present it was hardly a big surprise that she worked out who it was fairly quickly. Naruto's grin widened as he processed what she said and realised she was probably correct, doing an internal victory dance that he had been the one that had gotten his team an awesome mission so early in their ninja career. On the outside he simply settled for turning to Sakura and trying to be cool about the situation. "Lets not be hasty Sakura-chan, it is more likely they wanted Kakashi for some reason than us, I mean we are just fresh genin."

Sakura looked at him confused for a moment before holding her hands up in a seal. "Kai!" a small wave of chakra hit him from Sakura who looked even more intensely at him when nothing seemed to happen. After a moment she sighed and shook her head. "You really have changed in the last couple of weeks Naruto, I expected you to be crowing about this from the rooftops by now." That comment and the fact that she had thought it wasn't him because he had behaved better hurt slightly, but it at least showed that she was noticing his change in attitude, so he didn't let it affect him too much. He grinned round at them all and then noticed the time on his watch. "Okay, well it was good to see you guys again but I really need to go pack and tell some people about the mission, if I don't they will kill me when i get back. It was nice to meet you Kurenai-san, good luck with your first mission!"

And then he turned away and jumped off onto the roof tops, determined to get to Ichikaru's as soon as possible, if he was going away he would need to charge Umi up with chakra for some time as well, which meant that he would be cutting it close to make it in time for the mission. Someone fell in step beside him and he saw Sakura running beside him smiling at him as she spoke in answer to his obvious unspoken question. "We live in the same direction, don't you remember Naruto, I might as well join you for this trip until I get near mine." That made sense and the fact she had caught up with him rather than staying with Sasuke a bit longer meant a surprising amount to him as they continued travelling in silence for the rest of the trip, content with each others company as it was, no further conversation required.

Timeskip: 1 and a bit hours

Walking up to the gate with Umi and the twins and backpack firmly in place, Naruto couldn't help but smile as the three girls recognised the people who were currently interspaced between the three caravans that they seemed to have obtained from somewhere and ran towards them shouting greetings left right and centre. He left them too it and walked up to the other genin who were stood nearby. He was the last one there but it was not quite half past ten, so it wasn't like he was late or anything. He had sent some clones ahead to pack his equipment once he had dropped Sakura off at hers whilst he went to Ichikaru's to tell Ayame about the mission. She of course was both excited and worried for him, and it had taken him a lot of effort to get her to stay at the stand rather than come and help him pack, which would have made his refuelling of Umi somewhat more difficult than it had to be.

She had eventually sent him on his way with a kiss on the cheek and a hug, both of which left him red in the face and mumbling even as she laughed him off with a wave and a smile. Dealing with Umi had been a little more complicated than he had anticipated, especially when he brought up Nami and what had been happening that she had not known about. His clone had been surprisingly angry with him about her and it had taken him a few minutes to calm Umi down and find out why, though once he found out that Nami had been impersonating her whilst he had been injured and Umi having no idea who she was he could understand why to a certain extent.

She had calmed down eventually and Naruto revealed the plan that kyuubi had mentioned when they had discussed the problem with keeping Umi charged with chakra. Creating 5 clones, so that in theory each held a sixth of his chakra, they were to stay in her apartment and do as little as possible other than provide chakra for Umi when she required it. It was not a perfect plan but it was the best he and the fox could come up with without further research, something he would be doing in his free time when he was back in Konoha after the mission. The twins had bunked school for the morning when they found out that he was leaving on a mission, and considering his own past habits of skipping the academy to go pranking he didn't feel right in telling them off for it.

A small cough brought him back to the present and he looked up to see Sakura looked at him with an expression on her face that was somewhere between exasperation and disappointment as she pointed to the two girls who were currently hugging the legs of what Naruto remembered to be the caravan leader from Umi's descriptions. "Naruto, aren't they meant to be in school right now?" He shrugged, answer pre prepared because he knew someone would bring it up at some point. "This is the last chance they will get to see these guys for some time, I didn't want their last memories of the caravan and its people to be those of the bandit camp, so if they have to miss some school because of it I doubt either I or they will lose any sleep over it."

Sakura's expression changed at that comment and she looked at him with something akin to the beginnings of respect, causing Naruto's heart to quicken slightly as he realised it was him she was looking at like that. The mood was ruined however when Sasuke snorted from behind her and her attention was instantly focused on the Uchiha once more, her posture that of a lovestruck schoolgirl once again. "That almost sounded wise and intelligent from you dobe, should we be worried that you have hit your head too many times recently?" Naruto resisted the urge to start shouting at the boy, knowing it wouldn't look good in front of the others. He noticed out of the corner of his eye the caravan leader approaching with Umi leading him towards them.

He stopped in front of Naruto and bowed deeply, before wrapping him up in a giant hug. "So you are the one that found our kidnappers and rescued us from the camp, Umi-chan and the twins have told me a lot about you Naruto-san. I must admit when I went to the Hokage to ask specifically for you as an escort back to the land of Rice I didn't expect him to tell me that you were only just a graduate ninja, but I suppose rank doesn't account for skill and honour in this world." The mans words caused Sasuke to growl almost silently, and Naruto couldn't resist the pleased grin that passed over his face at the praise the man was giving him.

The noise Sasuke made brought the man's attention to the rest of the group and Naruto found himself quickly introducing them all to him before he stated that they would be leaving shortly to Rice and that Naruto should say his goodbyes to Umi and the twins. Naruto nodded and walked over to Umi, Aiko and Yuna, choosing first to kneel so that he was looking slightly up at the two young girls and grabbed one of each of their hands with his own. "Now, I want you two to be good for Umi-neechan whilst I am away okay? No more skipping school okay?" Both of them nodded, tearing up slightly as he brought them into a quick hug, which then turned into a longer hug as both of them refused to let go of him as he tried to extract himself from their grips.

It was only when Umi coughed in a warning manner did the two girls let him go, stepping back and bowing their heads towards the girl-clone slightly shamefully. "Sorry Umi-neechan, bye Naruto-niichan/kun." It was surprisingly Yuna that referred to him by the very close and affectionate suffix, causing her to turn red as Aiko turned to look at her with something akin to shock and possibly betrayal. Naruto chose not to comment as he instead tried to ignore the slightly embarrassed blush that reared on his cheeks as he turned to Umi, who didn't wait for him to initiate the hug as she stepped forwards and hugged herself tightly to him, head resting on his shoulder. The feeling that such a hug produced were surprisingly new to Naruto, it made him feel at ease and content, and it was hard for him to try and pull away from the girl.

Luckily Umi did it for him, pulling her head back to look him in the eyes for moment before he heard her whisper to herself. "Aww, why the hell not?" And she then darted forwards and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips for a second before pulling back and smiling shyly at him. Naruto was left dazed at the rash action and could barely compose himself to say goodbye to Umi, whose face now sported a deep red blush as big as his own probably was, causing Sakura to grab him and drag him forcefully after the carts that were now leaving the village, mumbling something about 'idiotic knuckleheads' the entire time. He roused himself from his thoughts enough to turn and wave at the three people who were still stood at the gate, a pleasant feeling spreading throughout his chest as they returned the waving, Aiko tearing up as she did so.

Turning back towards the road, he noticed Kakashi walking beside him and Sakura, visible eye fixed on Naruto with an amused aura surrounding the man. "So Naruto-kun, who is this little girl that seems to have put your head back in the clouds?" Naruto groaned even as the others chuckled at Kakashi's question, this was obviously the mans revenge for his earlier comment. It was strange that they weren't even out of sight of Konoha's walls yet, and he was already hoping for a bandit attack, simply to take the attention away from what had happened between him and Umi. Doing his best to ignore the man Naruto focused on the fact that Sakura still hadn't released his arm from hers in an attempt to focus on the positives that a week away would bring, though it would be an embarrassing week regardless...

Persona change: Umi Kaitoma

Reaching home after returning the twins to school, Umi could still not control the flush on her face as she unlocked the door to her apartment and headed inside her apartment. The look on the boss's face when she had finally plucked up the courage to start the next stage in their little plan had been more than worth the needling that Aiko and Yuna had given her after Naruto and the others had left. The fact that the Tenten girl had looked angrily at her after she had kissed him hinted that the older girl might like Naruto in a slightly more than platonic manner was something she should probably tell the boss about. After thinking about it for a moment she chuckled and shook her head, it would be more fun to see him find out for himself.

A now familiar voice spoke from the shadowed corner of the room furthest away from the door and Umi merely jumped slightly before relaxing to listen to what was being said. "Interesting way of seeing your creator off Umi-chan, you do realise you will have to slow things down a little, unless you want people to get suspicious of you of course?" A girl stepped from the shadows, matching the description of the Nami girl that Naruto had mentioned previously, dressed in ANBU fatigues and a hooded cloak once more. Without waiting for a reply the woman continued, reaching into one of her pouches and pulled out a book. "I noticed the clones that Naruto-kun left behind, probably to act as chakra refillers for you I imagine? This book will probably be of interest to you and Naruto-kun upon his return, it would certainly give you an easier way around your problem than leaving clones that can be detected quite easily."

Umi nodded her head in thanks, before she got a small grin on her face and looked over at Nami with a cheeky question in mind. "So its Naruto-kun now even when you aren't pretending to have known him for ages? I would almost think you are getting attached to the boss..." She cut off when Nami was suddenly in front of her, Katana resting lightly against the transformed clones throat. When Nami spoke there was a hint of fire there that surprised Umi considering that Naruto had told her how hard it had been for him to get the real Nami to react in the slightest. "I do not get attached to anything clone, and you would do to remember that. You are not to tell Naruto anything about this meeting other than the book do you understand?"

Umi nodded slightly fearfully and Nami stepped back, releasing her grip on Umi and sheathing the katana once more, taking a moment to collect herself before speaking once more. "Now, in addition to helping you in regards to the chakra problem, my organisation has found an opening that we think that would be advantageous for both your cover and Naruto-kun's future growth..." Deciding not to risk bringing up the woman's return to the affectionate nickname for her creator as that would probably not end well for her, Umi looked at her suspiciously with a caution that would certainly have surprised anyone that knew she was actually a clone of the happy go lucky guy she called boss.

"My first question is why are you helping us so much? Naruto told me the reasoning you gave him and I don't buy it for a moment, this low level revelation to the Hokage of the villages weakened security is certainly not worth risking your true identity as you have done, especially as you seem to be related to someone important if Naruto's telling me of Yugao-chan's reaction to you is true. I love the boss dearly but he is a very trusting idiot when it comes to women, which is not how you will find me I promise you. And secondly, what is this job that you have planned for me? And how will it help both me and the boss?"

Nami raised an eyebrow at her and Umi couldn't but help feeling that the woman was slightly impressed with her questioning even as the woman strode past her into the kitchen. "It would be best if we discussed this over tea I think Umi-san, then if anyone comes calling you can pretend that you were informing me of Naruto-kun's mission. In regards to why am I helping so much? There is a surprising amount you and your master need to learn I think..." Nami trailed off and though Umi couldn't see her face, she could only picture the smirk that was covering it at this point, and it was not reassuring to her in the slightest...

Location Change: Unknown

In the darkness of the subterranean base that had been built with the blood and lives of dozens of slaves over the last few years, a cloaked figure was waiting patiently, looking down at the bandit that had just run into the room and was doing his best to recover his breath. After a few more seconds the bandit recovered enough to stand and speak, bowing hurriedly in respect before he did so. "Ronin-sama, I am afraid that Takota's base has been compromised and nearly all of his men have been captured or killed by Konoha shinobi." The cloaked man didn't react for a moment before a deep voice echoed round the cave room.

"That much was known to me, though your enthusiasm to inform me of news as soon as you find out is laudable. There is nothing that can be done about that for the moment, though we will need to increase our other operations to make up for this loss. I wouldn't want for my clients to become... impatient with their requests. Have the others reported on their takings for the month?" The bandit had shivered at the mention of their clients, the one that had visited in person had given the entire camp the creeps from his mere presence.

"They have Ronin-sama, and both are reporting that they have higher than their quota of slaves, though Oni-dono lost almost a dozen of his men when a patrolling chuunin came across one of his raiding parties before they managed to kill the man. Ronin-sama, should we not be worried about Takota-dono? I mean those ninja freaks are pretty good at getting information out of people and he does know our location. " The cloak shifted in what the bandit assumed was a nod and the bandit quieted hurriedly in case he had angered the man with his question.

"Do not be afraid of that, one of our clients has already offered the services of one of his men to deal with that little problem, so the chances are that Takota is already incapable of telling the ninja anything by this point. What is more worrying is Oni's encounter with that chuunin, it means that there will be increased patrolling in that region for the near future which will impact on our operations. Did he dispose of the body and cover all signs there had been fighting there?" The bandit looked uncertain and shook his head. "I am unsure Ronin-sama, there were no further details in the message he sent us, though I can go to ensure that those details are obtained now if you wish?"

The cloaked figure nodded once more and the bandit bowed once more before quietly leaving the room, leaving the man alone once more. The cloaked figure stalked over to where there was a satchel open on their desk, the contents spread across it with the information the figure required to understand what had gone wrong with Takota's operation, courtesy of their little friend back in Konoha of course. After a few minutes of skimming the official report on the mission, they found themselves turning to the profile of the ninja who had been the key to downfall of his little operation.

'Uzumaki Naruto, you now have my attention and I will ensure that I monitor your actions from here on in, after all if you bring anymore trouble to my operations I will have no choice but to ensure that an accident happens to you..' The figure chuckled to themselves for another moment before shaking their head and placing the contents back in its satchel for their later perusal, brushing a strand of long brown hair back behind their ear as they did so. They had orders to give and paperwork to do now before the figure could truly finish its day.

Location change: Hokage tower, 7pm

Persona change: Hiruzen Sarutobi, third Hokage of Konoha

Sarutobi was sat at his desk having finished his paperwork for the day, though the meetings that he now had to deal with almost made him wish for more paperwork instead. Anko had just finished giving her report about the information that the T+I department had been able to glean from the captured bandits and something had happened that was making the situation far more complicated. "So the leader of the bandits, this 'Takota', died in custody before he recovered enough from the injuries he sustained in being captured to be interrogated?" Anko nodded but she seemed to want to say something herself but was unsure whether to or not.

Sarutobi waved his hand indicating that she should speak her mind, which she did after another moment of unsureness. "Hai Hokage-sama, and I don't mean to throw the word around easily considering my past, but it seems possible that Naruto-kun might be right with his guesses about a traitor working in Konoha." She paused for a moment but Sarutobi had no intention of interrupting her thoughts and merely waited until she continued. "The bandits themselves didn't say anything specific about the idea, though they say that this Takota and the guy Naruto killed called Hochi seemed to always know when a caravan was coming and when to strike, which is not something they could do easily to say the least. And then there is Takota dying as he did, his wounds were certainly not enough for him to die on us as he did, so I imagine someone did something to silence him before he had the chance to talk."

Sarutobi sat back and hummed to himself, that was most certainly unwelcome news, the fact that this spy would have had to be able to infiltrate the T+I headquarters to carry out this murder was most troubling and definitely pointed to a ninja rather than a civilian. Then again it was better to err on the side of caution and assume it could have been anyone rather than narrow the search field in case he was wrong. Looking over at Anko he sighed, this was going to be an awful lot of work for him to sign off on. "Right, well Anko-san, I think that the only thing we can do is have every person that exited and entered the building around the time of Takota's death looked at as a possible spy until we can prove otherwise. I will authorise any paperwork that you need in order to do this."

Anko shuddered at this and Sarutobi could understand why, there were easily 400 people who worked in the T+I building all day and almost a 100 ninja and civilians that visited there every hour for various reasons, so the number of people to investigate was staggering, and until she could clear some people of possible guilt, it would have to be a solo job for her to complete. She didn't complain however as he quickly signed the necessary form for her to start investigating her department colleagues and permission to access their records from the private records office, merely standing to attention and saluting before asking. "By you leave then Hokage-sama?"

He nodded and she was gone in burst of speed, leaving him alone apart from his ANBU guards once more. He looked over the report for a few more minutes, wondering what else was going on his village without him knowing about it, especially with the news that he had received this morning. That was the cause of the next meeting of the evening he was having, and pressing the intercom button on his desk he indicated that his secretary should let his next guest enter the room. Looking up as they entered he decided to not use his usual approach of kindness and instead stared sternly at them as he spoke. "Chuunin Nami Shimura, come and have a seat, there is a lot we need to talk about it seems..."

_**AN: *Insert evil laugh here* This chapter was so much fun to write, and it being my longest chapter by far is also something I am proud of. I am trying to make the chapters longer so that the story can actually start to progress a little, though I have revealed a lot of plot thus far there actually hasn't been much story development. Though the fact that I have team seven out on a c-rank straight away is going to either get me a lot of good reviews or a lot of flames, along with the fact that Sakura is actually acting like something of a normal person as opposed to a screaming banshee as she is often depicted these days...**_

_**Another reason for this chapter is that I dislike the fact that in anime that despite Naruto failing the academy test twice he seems to know no-one in the two years he had been in, so I have changed that with team Gai, showing that whilst they hadn't been friends or anything he still knew something about them. I will also create another team for the Team Gai's graduating class at some point, but that is some distance in the future so I won't spoil the surprise.**_

_**Please leave a nice or constructive review on your way out, you guys/girls are the reason that I write this stuff so i like to know what you think. :)**_


	17. Mission Complete

_Previously on the Deception, Gone Awry:_

_Anko shuddered at this and Sarutobi could understand why, there were easily 400 people who worked in the T+I building all day and almost a 100 ninja and civilians that visited there every hour for various reasons, so the number of people to investigate was staggering, and until she could clear some people of possible guilt, it would have to be a solo job for her to complete. She didn't complain however as he quickly signed the necessary form for her to start investigating her department colleagues and permission to access their records from the private records office, merely standing to attention and saluting before asking. "By you leave then Hokage-sama?" _

_He nodded and she was gone in a burst of speed, leaving him alone apart from his ANBU guards once more. He looked over the report for a few more minutes, wondering what else was going on his village without him knowing about it, especially with the news that he had received this morning. That was the cause of the next meeting of the evening he was having, and pressing the intercom button on his desk he indicated that his secretary should let his next guest enter the room. Looking up as they entered he decided to not use his usual approach of kindness and instead stared sternly at them as he spoke. "Chuunin Nami Shimura, come and have a seat there is a lot we need to talk about it seems..."_

Chapter 17: The mission, a revelation and drama by the bucketful

**(A/N: It has been pointed out to me several times now that my writing needs to be more broken up in my stories, so this is the first chapter to adopt this new paragraphing style, tell me whether you like it or not on the way out.)**

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki,

Naruto awoke in a cold sweat again, though this time he managed to hold in the noise that was trying to burst from his throat. The nightmares had struck him every night since they had left Konoha, the corpses of the bandits and his own blood stained hands mixing with the hateful stares of the villagers and their mutterings of monster and demon.

It was still dark outside from what he could tell, but he knew he would not sleep again tonight so there was no point in staying in the tent. Shifting carefully to avoid disturbing the sleeping Lee, who had obviously switched with Sasuke at some point during the night for his watch, he dressed himself in his usual t-shirt and orange trousers, having been unable to replace the orange jacket after it had been essentially destroyed by the bandits.

Grabbing one of the two black cotton jackets that he had found in the back of his closet that had definitely not been present there the week before, he put it on and couldn't help the pleased feeling that the well-fitting jacket gave him, even if it was in completely the wrong colour. Undoing the entrance to the tent he shuffled his way outside into the camp that they had set up for the last night before they reached the Land of Rice's capital, with the caravan people all sleeping in tents close to the large fire they had built up upon arrival, whilst the ninja teams slept on the outskirts so that those on guard could maintain their night vision more effectively.

It did not take much effort for him to work out where Sasuke was, the Uchiha was good at hiding his presence that was true, but he was also highly predictable, so having found the biggest tree that was around the edge of the camp he could spot in the dim light of the fire the traditional blue of the Uchiha battle outfit. He turned to go for a walk round the camp; he did not wish to talk at this point anyways.

The three days had certainly been enlightening, not only to Naruto but the entirety of his genin team, not that it was a particularly heartening epiphany. When the civilians had come to a stop for the first night, still well within Konoha's borders, Gai had announced that it was time for training to begin. Kakashi had left the enthusiastic man to it, claiming that he would keep guard over the clients whilst they trained, though Naruto suspected pessimistically that it was so he could read his book in peace.

Gai had mumbled about his rival's hip attitude for a few more moments before becoming a bit more serious and gathering the genin around. He said that they would start with a practice spar with one of his team against each member of Team seven so that he could get an idea of their abilities. Naruto had agreed eagerly, the chance to fight always something that got his blood pumping, though he could see Sakura being a little more apprehensive about the upcoming bouts. Sasuke had simply snorted and pointed to Neji, stating that he wished to see what the 'vaunted' Hyuuga bloodline could do, his words dripping with sarcasm and superiority.

The bouts had been a massacre in all honesty, and Naruto could tell that all of Gai's team were holding back considerably whilst they destroyed his team. Neji had let Sasuke attempt to strike him for a few minutes, toying with the Uchiha to aggravate his temper before striking several points on the Uchiha's chest with his fingers as Sasuke leapt back to prepare a jutsu, something that Naruto had initially laughed at until Sasuke had collapsed breathing harshly as he did so. Neji had stood over him for a moment before stating that fate had ensured he had been victorious and stalking off, telling Gai he would be training in the woods without even honouring the fight that had occurred.

Snarling at the Hyuuga's attitude Naruto had beaten everyone else into stepping towards Sasuke, helping the boy stand despite his protests that he was fine. He moved him to the side of the impromptu ring whilst Gai indicated that Tenten and Sakura should go next. Whilst the last fight was terrible because of the Hyuuga's attitude, this one was almost worse because of the obvious pity that Tenten was showing Sakura.

The self-proclaimed weapons mistress didn't even draw a kunai throughout her match, breaking through Sakura's very technical but physically weak Taijutsu with such ease that Naruto was worried what would happen to him against Lee, who was from his dress code was an obvious Taijutsu expert and his muscles were obvious beneath his spandex clothing.

Tenten had been a lot nicer when the bout had ended however, helping Sakura up from where she had ended up sprawled on the floor and bowing respectfully to each other. She had then taken the girl off to the side to talk about something in private, leaving Naruto to face off against Lee, who was as excited about the match as Naruto had been before seeing his team get slaughtered. Truthfully he liked to think he did the best out of his team, not ending up on the floor and incapable at any point in the spar, though he knew that if Lee had gone all out he would have been destroyed easily.

The boys speed was easily at the same level as Himako's speed had been when she had been forcing him to travel through the forest at a sprint, though Lee didn't show any of the exertion that Naruto was forced to expend from the start in blocking and dodging the various punches and kicks that were levelled in his direction. Lee's strength was also far beyond that of any of the genin that Naruto had faced in the current graduating class, his arms and chest were still covered in deep bruises from the fight despite the Kyuubi's somewhat accelerated healing. Thankfully Naruto had managed to respond well enough to force Lee to dodge backwards long enough for him to form a familiar hand-sign.

Not that the 30 odd kage bushin had helped him particularly in defeating Lee, they had slowed the boy down enough to draw out the fight to its 5 minute ending point, something that Naruto had gratefully taken advantage of when Gai had offered it to him. He could have kept spawning Kage bushin to try and wear Lee down, but that would probably just force the boy to up his game and could have ended quite painfully for Naruto if he had tried. Sasuke had slunk off during his fight to go and talk with Kakashi, but Naruto stayed to listen to Gai's input, the man was a jonin after all, so he would probably have some useful tips.

And useful they were, Gai picked apart Naruto's fighting style with a few harsh words that essentially stated that most of the forms were too loose or entirely wrong. Before Naruto had gotten too down at the comments, Gai had moved on to complimenting his speed and durability during the bout, and offering to help fix his stances if Naruto wished for the assistance. Naruto had accepted eagerly and spent the next few minutes getting into the basic stances of the academy form and altering it to Gai's suggestions. The stances felt weird to him after doing so, but also firmer, so he was more than prepared to put up with the discomfort that the stances initially gave him when he formed them.

Gai had gotten Tenten to watch his kata's after that whilst he had moved onto Sakura, who had been acting down ever since Sasuke had been so handily defeated by Neji. She listened attentively to what Gai had been saying though, seeing all three of them beaten as they were had obviously humbled to an extent the Uchiha fan-girl in her. Gai had her performing speed exercises for the rest of the evening, stating that it would be better to up her speed rather than her strength for the time being.

They had fallen into a pattern every night from there on in, where Naruto would create three hundred clones upon arriving in the camp, with some helping the caravan people set up the camp and others acting as targets for Tenten to practice her throwing or to give her something to practice her Taijutsu against. The first time her had done this Gai and his team had been openly shocked, but by the tonight it had become much more of a normal thing for them.

Lee would spar with Naruto and comment on what in his style needed to be altered or what improvements had been made whilst Sakura would continue to follow the speed exercises under the watchful eye of one of the jonin, the two taking it in turns to watch over the camp whilst the genin trained. Sasuke had become even more withdrawn and caustic following the spar and both he and Neji would head off by themselves once the camp was ready for the night to train on their own, ignoring the other genin in the attempts they made to socialise with them.

He drew himself to a halt at the edge of the clearing on the other side to Sasuke, falling into the now familiar first stance of the Academy style. He had yet to see an appreciable benefit from changing his stances in line with what Gai expected from him, but he trusted the man to know what he was talking about. Kakashi hadn't said anything bad about his new stance either, merely using his hands and feet to shift Naruto's body slightly before nodding approvingly and stating that Gai was teaching him well.

He was halfway through the fourth kata when a voice spoke from behind him, his reflexes causing him to spin round and settle himself into a defensive stance. "Your stances have improved greatly in the past few days Naruto-kun, and that is a perfect defensive stance you have taken reflexively."

Seeing that it was the tall spandex wearing jonin Naruto relaxed from his stance and smiled thankfully at him. "Thanks Gai-sensei, you and Kakashi have been much better teachers than the idiots at the academy." He didn't want to admit to himself or anyone else that the real reason that his Taijutsu sucked so much was probably because he had missed so many of the lessons due to his pranking escapades.

Luckily if Gai realised this was the case he didn't comment on it, instead moving so that he was stood next to Naruto facing into the camp, a slightly serious look on his face. "Tenten has told me that this is not the first time you have woken in the night on our mission, and though she did not openly express it she indicated she thought it might be something to do with your little mission on graduation day." The bandit camp and test stories had been another thing he had been forced to retell to everyone, though in less detail than he had at the ramen stand to save him some time.

All of Gai's genin had been openly doubtful about him injuring Kakashi, though Neji had been the only one to be derogatory about it until the man himself had shifted his jonin vest and shirt without a word to reveal his still bandaged shoulder. After that all three of them had acted differently around Naruto, with both Tenten and Lee demanding full spars when they got back to Konoha and Naruto retrieved his axe, which his clones had forgotten to pack and he had decided was not essential enough for the mission for him to go back and fetch it once he realised he was lacking it.

Neji had merely taken to ignoring his presence unless it was absolutely necessary for them to talk, something that Naruto found quite enjoyable if he was honest, the boys snide remarks had steadily worn down his patience even faster than Sasuke's normally did. He nodded slightly, knowing it wasn't worth trying to lie about it to the man, before shrugging non-committedly and looking away over the camp once more. "Yeah, but I will get over it soon I am sure, I didn't mean to worry Tenten-chan about it." He was surprised when Gai placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and spoke softly.

"This is not something 'you get over' Naruto-kun, if it is I pray for your soul, as it takes someone who enjoys killing other people to be able to ignore the feelings that such an act brings. I cannot speak for everyone, but I know for a fact that I still remember my first kill rather vividly and though the pain and guilt have faded with time I still have moments when they rise to the surface once more."

The two stood in silence for a moment longer before Naruto voiced a hesitant question, unsure how the jonin would react. "Gai-sensei, what happened, if you don't mind me asking?" The man sighed and Naruto thought for a moment he had overstepped the boundaries that had been formed between him and his new sensei. Just as he was about to apologise for trying to find out what he had asked Gai started speaking, in a slightly distant tone that showed he was reliving the memory of what had happened as he spoke.

"It was my third c-rank mission as a genin, my Jounin sensei had accepted the mission to rescue some kidnapped civilians that had been taken by a bandit party in the hills of northern fire country. We dealt with the bandits easily enough, but then a low level missing ninja pair turned up, keeping my sensei busy whilst my team and I went into the caves to rescue the hostages."

The man paused for a second and Naruto thought he could see the man's eyes water for a moment before he pressed on. "The prisoners had been treated very badly; most of the women had been raped and beaten before we could get there. To my horror one of the girls that had been taken had been tortured, her skin flayed off her back and badly beaten whilst tied to a wooden table. I knew she wasn't going to survive the rescue, and so did she by the way she begged me to end her suffering."

Naruto could barely contain the emotions that this tale caused to erupt inside of him, and he was glad that Gai stopped his description there rather than describe what he had done next. Naruto was suddenly glad that his kills had occurred in the way that they did, his opponents had attacked him and at least they had been partially at fault for the actions that led to their deaths. Gai-sensei had no such comfort however, and Naruto wondered how the man had been able to get through the guilt that such an event caused.

"Sensei… How did you cope? I-I thought I was having a bad time but now I wonder if I have the right to be like this…" He cut off as Gai shook his head and gripped his shoulder a little more firmly.

"Your emotions are not something that should be measured in comparison to the actions of others Naruto-kun, remember that above all else. In regards to coping with what I had done that day I didn't in all honesty. It took months for my team to get me over it, both of my team members missing the chuunin exams in order to help me recover. Your team is here for you emotionally as well as for missions Naruto-kun, though I would avoid talking with this particular event with Sakura or Sasuke, they won't be able to understand what you are going through like Tenten and I can."

The man paused for a moment longer before speaking in a lighter tone, smile returning to his face as he did so. "What some people I know have done to help ease the guilt is to make themselves a vow. Some swear never to kill again, though in our profession that is almost impossible to achieve and most of those retire quite quickly. Others vow to take the lives only of those that threaten the innocent. There is no easy way to ease the guilt, but these at least lessen the pain somewhat."

The mention of Tenten's name caused Naruto's head to shoot up, though he didn't say anything, content with trying to broach the subject with the girl at some other point. The idea of a vow grabbed his attention as well, though he would need to give it some more thought before he decided on something so potentially life changing.

The two simply stood there in silence for a few minutes before Naruto decided he would try and go back to bed, his heart more at peace with itself now he had talked with someone about it, even if he didn't do most of the talking. Bidding Gai goodnight and thanking him once more, he moved back to the tent and once inside felt sleep claim him once more, hopefully this time without the dreams of blood and bodies to ruin his rest once more.

Outside, Gai stood on watch quietly, a small but sad smile on his face as he nodded up to where Kakashi had been watching the exchange. The two men didn't need to speak to communicate with each other, and Gai knew that the burden on Kakashi's shoulders had been lessened with the night's conversation. It was a topic that the masked ninja could not have talked about so easily with Naruto considering the boys wariness towards him still, that and the copy-nin was not very good with the emotional aspects of being a ninja.

The masked man disappeared, obviously to replace Sasuke on watch, but Gai stayed where he was, prepared to let the blonde boy sleep through the night in peace this one time. It's not like he would be able to sleep now he had so vividly brought his nightmares to his mind once more anyways.

Time shift: Third day of Naruto's mission

Persona Change: Danzo Shimura, Head of Ne

He strode as best he could through the corridors of the Hokage tower, his cane impacting loudly against the floor with each step he took. The Hokage had 'invited' him to have lunch with the man and Danzo knew that it was not worth refusing the man, especially with his goddaughter having been taken in for 'routine testing' two days earlier and none of his Ne agents knew where she was, certainly not at the hospital or the ANBU headquarters where such testing usually took place. Entering the Hokage's office, he found the man in question sat at the large desk with his secretary laying out the food for the both of them in front of them. Sarutobi noticed his entrance and nodded his head towards him.

"Danzo, you are right on time, please come and have a seat, its sushi today I hope you do not mind." Sarutobi knew he didn't mind, sushi was one of his favourite foods after all, but that was all part of the old monkeys game of trying to gain an advantage over him for the coming conversation. Not that Danzo could claim to be much better of course, most of the time the two matched wits like this simply for the challenge their opponent presented to them.

But this time was somewhat more serious and he had to truly be at his best. Bowing his head respectfully he replied with his normal emotionless tone. "Hokage-sama, I am honoured for the invitation for lunch with the most powerful ninja in Konoha, regardless of what is on the menu. I know that you are as pressed for time as I am most of the time after all."

An entirely normal sentence to the average person, but to the two veterans it contained a challenge hidden in its tone. 'I do not care for the food; get on with what you want to ask about.' The Hokage nodded, chuckling as the secretary finished with laying of the food and bowed before leaving the two men alone, if you ignored the ANBU guards of course. "I can always make time for such an old friend Danzo, especially when I hear news of our young charges making the same bonds that we did when we were younger. I assume you helped Nami-chan look past the prejudice of the villagers in that regard?" Not even an accusation, though the question of whether he had ordered Nami to befriend the young container was plain enough to him.

He shook his head honestly; the cover that Naruto had come up with in regards to them was very useful to him in this instance as it had definitely not been his idea. "Nami-chan is a strong willed young lady Hokage-sama, who she befriends, is certainly beyond an old man's control. Though I must admit that I am concerned about her, she told me she was going in for testing a couple of days ago and I have not heard from her since. With the Hokage's permission could I enquire at the hospital as to what had happened to her? I would be most upset if she was seriously ill and I was unable to go see her."

The Hokage grinned and Danzo knew even before he spoke that the man had won the first exchange in this conversation between them. "I would not worry about it too much, just standard questioning that occurs when she becomes a higher security risk to Konoha. I am sure that by the time we finish this conversation is over she will be free to meet with you once more, assuming that no complications arise of course. It wouldn't do for her to be getting closer to the container due to outside influences after all."

A threat, promise and warning all wrapped into one sentence, certainly something that Danzo could not compete with considering the advantageous position the man was in. Suddenly a thought struck him and he barely resisted a smile of his own as he thought of a clever counter.

"Yes it would be a shame if one of the containers few friends were too suddenly to disappear off the face of earth. The boy would be distraught at the news, especially if you could not tell him why she has disappeared. He wouldn't know how to deal with such secrecy from his Jiji at his young age."

He let the sentence hang as Sarutobi's smile faded slowly from his face, though Danzo knew that the conversation had merely levelled out in neither ninjas favour, meaning that they would be reduced to probing small talk for the next few hours, which did not serve Danzo's current purposes for the meeting.

Therefore he decided to a little concession in this topic so that he could progress the conversation forwards to other topics. "However, I am sure that my god daughter has only the best of intentions towards the boy, especially after I said to her that such a friendship would raise your suspicions. She still befriended him and has told me that she will not agree out of hand with anything I might say about the boy."

She of course hadn't said any such thing but considering how much the boy had already affected her personality it wouldn't be long before she fell from his control. Normally he would have stopped such a possibility as soon as he realised it was occurring, especially considering Nami's potential in Root, but if doing so helped the container grow stronger to protect the village and possibly made him more open to his ideas it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Sarutobi managed to reduce his surprise to a simple widening of his eyes at Danzo's unspoken promise not to try and turn Naruto to his way of thinking through his god daughter and nodded his head gratefully.

"Children these days, so hurried to oppose their elders on such matters, though I suppose it cannot be helped. It is surprising the effect Naruto-kun has upon people even if they have met him for only a short time." Danzo nodded at that, the child's natural charisma was surprising considering the boy did not even know how to utilise it, but that was a thought for another time.

"Of course Hokage-sama, I have heard the recent rumours regarding his antics. Speaking of which, what is this news of the bandit leader he helped capture dying mysteriously of heart failure before he could be interrogated? Such news is enough to make a paranoid old shinobi like myself think there might be foul play involved…"

And a new battle began between them, the sushi untouched as the two arrayed words and body language against each other, both sides familiar with the others tactics and strengths, though that made the possible victory that much sweeter to obtain…

Timeskip:

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

The rest of the mission had gone smoothly without a hint of trouble for their clients, but that didn't mean that it hadn't been interesting Naruto thought to himself as Kakashi and Gai finished giving their reports to the Hokage. Visiting Rice had been an experience for him, even in the capital the country had been notably less rich and developed as Konoha was, but this wasn't reflected in the people that Naruto had met whilst he had been there.

They had been the friendliest and most helpful people that Naruto had met in his life, happy to sate the curiosity of his clones that he had unleashed upon the city when Kakashi had announced that they had a free evening to themselves and tell them all about what was going on in the capital, even talking about a new ninja village that had sprung up to the west of the country whose shinobi were now charged with protecting the Rice Daimyo and protecting the Rice citizens from bandits and missing ninja.

It had been Naruto's opinion that it was good that he hadn't encountered any of these 'sound' village shinobi, he knew with his luck recently he would have somehow ended up in a fight with them in all likelihood. His clones had noticed almost a dozen of them scattered around the city whilst they traversed it however, and by the way they stuck to the rooftops and shadows Naruto got an uneasy feeling that they were not the kind hearted saviours that he had been depicted.

He had mentioned this in his report to Kakashi after they were back in Fire country and the man had simply told him that there were typically two types of shinobi, the public shinobi and the battle shinobi. The public shinobi were the usually the most influential or charismatic of a village's ninja, the ones who went on escort missions like they were currently on and interacted with the civilians to expand the villages influence.

Battle shinobi were the more numerous of a village's ninja, who did not do well at the socialising and interacting missions, but more than capable in the cases of an attack, suitable for guarding and patrolling missions. He therefore pointed out that the ones that the villagers had interacted with were of the first type whilst the ones Naruto had seen were probably of the second type. Naruto had been mollified by that, he hadn't honestly known that such segregation occurred in shinobi lifestyle.

He zoned back into the conversation just to catch the Hokage dismissing them for the day. Luckily it was only midday, so he could catch Umi hopefully to find out what the hell was up with that kiss, Kakashi still brought it up to tease him every now and again. Arranging to meet up with Tenten and Lee the next morning at their training ground for the spars and bidding goodbye to his team, Sakura sticking around to hang out with Sasuke a bit longer rather than returning home straight away, he then leapt off to the rooftops, happy to be on familiar ground once more.

On entering his apartment he found a note in his clone's familiar hand writing, saying that she had been offered a job so she would be out until early evening. There was a scribble of several wavy lines at the top right hand corners of the page next to a smiley face. Shrugging at it he placed the note down and decided to unpack his stuff before going back to the old man to work out how much more work he needed to do in order to finish his prank punishment, the sooner he did the sooner he would start earning money once more. He wondered whether the old man had any missions that he could do on his own?

Timeskip: four hours

Naruto was honestly surprised that his clone could put up with the two girls for the time that she did, as he tried once more to catch up to the hyperactive twins who had announced that he should play ninja with them and their friends. He had gone to pick them up from school as a surprise for the pair of them, but after chasing a dozen children for two hours without using chakra even he was getting tired.

He was glad that this was the last time they were playing before all of them went home, it would give him chance to get home and shower before Umi arrived home and then he could take her out for ramen with his now unhindered money, having paid the fine portion of his punishment whilst meeting with the old man with the money Umi had given him so had some money to spend and give back to the clone.

The old man hadn't given him any of his mission money for the c-rank mission but had stated that it had covered a third of his punishment time instead, which Naruto was pleased to hear, especially when Sarutobi continued by telling him that he had added an extra 10 hours of 'time' to the total for his work with the spy and the bandit camp.

It was still a lot of work for him to complete for free in two and a half months, but after pointing out the impossible time requirements to the old man considering his team would probably only do one or two hours of missions a day, the old man had agreed to letting him do solo missions if Kakashi gave his permission until the punishment was finished with.

It was not like Kakashi would say no once he found out why Naruto needed to do it, seeing as Naruto needed to do roughly 3 hours of mission work a day to work off his debt in time, meaning that after today he would be very busy with that and team training for the foreseeable future. Finally tagging the two girls he let them say goodbye to their friends before they headed home, the pair of them talking excitedly to him about what they had been up to whilst he had been away, mostly learning their way around Konoha and hanging out with Umi-chan, but he offered an attentive ear regardless.

They reached the apartments to find Umi-chan waiting at the base, dressed up in a smart and pretty dress that she would never have been able to afford with the little money he had left her for food. As she ran up to hug him he remembered the note mentioning a job she had obtained so assumed it was her new uniform.

"Umi-chan, I hope you haven't eaten yet I was planning on going for ramen tonight with you all as a celebration of my first completed ninja mission. You can tell me about this new job you have whilst we are there."

Aiko snorted at this and pointed at Umi with a betrayed look on her face. "Nee-chan now works at the main library all week Naruto-kun; she couldn't even play with us over the weekend whilst you were gone."

That caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow; the main library of Konoha stored every book and treaty that Konoha had managed to gather over the years, in addition to most low level and mid-level ninja knowledge available to the ninja forces. With this in mind the security screening was even tougher than it was for applicant ninja, so how had Umi gotten the job?

His mind jumped back to the note and the wave like lines on the paper; of course Nami had done something to help Umi with this. He would have to thank her later; all of the older librarians had refused him entry when he had been a civilian so he had never been able to get much to read in his spare time, not that he had much enthusiasm for it with his pranking and avoiding work at the academy.

Umi would give him the foot into the building that would let him learn some ninja techniques now that he was a genin, which would be very useful for his career. He smiled at her and pulled her into a one armed hug as they walked, causing the girl-clone to blush slightly at the obvious sign of affection. "Umi-chan, I think that is awesome news! I hope the old bats there aren't giving you too hard a time. I will have to come visit you at work sometime!"

Umi nodded her head with a smile of her own even as she slapped him on the shoulder. "Naruto-kun, don't use such disrespect in front of the girls, even if it is true. But they aren't all that bad, I met a girl in the cryptology department that is really nice, I eat lunch with her and she has so much interesting stuff to say that I have never heard about…"

She had lost Naruto at the word Cryptology, but he was glad to hear that she was expanding her group of friends beyond those that he knew himself. They reached the ramen bar quite quickly and Naruto held the curtain back to allow the girls through first, only to rush through himself when Umi gasped at the sight in front of her. "Sakura-chan, what happened to you?"

The girl in question was slowly eating a small bowl of ramen, though it was the visible side of her face that had caused Umi's reaction. Sakura had a bright red patch of irritated skin and bruising down the side of her face, an obvious sign that she had been hit and hit hard in the last few days, and it definitely hadn't been there when Naruto had left her at the Hokage tower earlier that day.

Sakura looked up at the cry and smiled slightly at seeing Naruto and Umi, before wincing in pain from the movement of her facial muscles. Ayame had also looked up when Umi had called out, having been holding out an ice pack for Sakura to use. "Naruto-kun, Umi-chan, I can't state how glad I am you are here, Sakura came in here in tears half an hour ago but hasn't said anything to me other than to order ramen. Can you try and talk to her?"

Naruto had moved whilst Ayame had been talking, taking the ice pack from her hands without a word and holding it to Sakura's face with one hand whilst the other prevented her from shying away from it. She hissed as the cold agitated the nerves around the inflamed area and tried to free herself weakly from his grip, though there was surprisingly little power behind her attempts.

He spoke softly, trying not to let his anger surface at the idea of someone hurting HIS Sakura-chan. "Sakura-chan, we need to keep the ice there otherwise it's going to swell up and hurt even more than it does now. Now either you can hold it there yourself or I will do it for you, but its staying there for a while either way, no third option here."

She glared at him, trying to force him to back off as he usually would in her regard, but he refused to budge on his argument and eventually she looked away from him and reached up with her left hand to hold the ice pack in place over his own. He tried to remove his hand but she held it firmly in place, smirking slightly with a hint of her usual fire as she spoke softly to him. "There's the third option you were looking for. Thanks Naruto."

As quickly as the smirk appeared it was gone once more, but Naruto knew he was making some progress in getting her too talk. Resigned to the fact that one of his hands was going to be occupied for the near future, he turned away for a moment to talk to Umi when Yuna's voice came from the other side of Sakura, and a quick glance showed the shy girl tugging on Sakura's dress in what she obviously thought was a concerned manner, her bottom lip trembling adorably.

"Sakura-neechan, are you okay? It wasn't that black haired boy was it? He seemed very grumpy to me." At Sakura's hesitant but negative shake of the head, Naruto guessed that whilst the Uchiha hadn't hit her he had at least had something to do with the incident.

He turned to Umi once more. "Umi, could you take the twins to the other end of the bar to eat? I will pay but I think Sakura-chan and I need to have a private chat." Umi nodded and silenced the twin's protests with a stern look that would not look out of place on Iruka when he dealt with Naruto misbehaving, taking one in each hand and moving to the other end of the bar.

Ayame didn't say anything before moving off to take their orders, something Naruto was thankful of as the situation was awkward enough as it was. Turning back he found Sakura looking down at her ramen, obviously determined not to meet his eyes. Rather than try and force her to talk, Naruto decided to try and employ the same technique Anko had used on him the week before to great effect.

"I am not going to try and make you talk about it if you don't want to Sakura-chan, but you know that I will not tell anyone anything you say or do anything you do not want me to do. If you prefer we can just sit here and eat ramen in silence, but I can't promise I won't fidget when my hand gets a bit numb." That drew a smile to her face even as she shook her head.

"Not…not here okay Naruto? I will tell you later if you promise not too over react to what I tell you?" He nodded but she spoke more urgently, her hand gripping his slightly harder as she did so. "I need to hear you promise it Naruto, otherwise I can't trust you not to try and do something stupid." Her reaction was causing all sorts of alarm bells to ring in his head, but he knew he couldn't let Sakura down when she was like this of all times.

"Okay Sakura-chan, I promise that I won't tell anyone else anything about what you tell me or do anything to whichever teme hit you, as much as I am already wanting to. Now, I think I will have a bowl of ramen and then we can go chat." She winced slightly at his promise and he once more tried to fathom who the person was, she said it wasn't Sasuke but he was the only person who he thought would illicit such a reaction from her. He waved the others back over to them, making sure to keep the topic of conversation away from Sakura whilst waiting for his order to arrive.

He told the girls of his mission, trying to make it sound as exciting as possible despite nothing happening, and the resulting conversation was actually quite enlightening to him. Aiko and Yuna were actually from Waterfall Country rather than Rice as he had believed, not that they had many memories of the place, having been merely five when their mother had died and they were forced to take to the road with their grandmother.

Their father was not mentioned by either of them, whether because they didn't know anything about him from their Grandmother or they didn't like whoever it was enough for him to be worth mentioning. They had become well-travelled since then, having travelled through the lands of Grass, Tea, Honey, swamps and of course Rice during their time with the caravan.

Eventually though Naruto had to step in when Sakura yawned for the second time in quick succession, saying goodbye to the twins and giving Umi a one armed hug as his other hand was still held against the now melted ice-pack on Sakura's face. He managed to convince the pink haired girl to leave the ice pack with Ayame before they left, though she then grabbed his hand as she led him out of the restaurant.

"Is it okay if we go to yours to talk? I don't want to say anything out here." He nodded; it was understandable given the number of Ninja that moved across the rooftops above them, any one of them could listen in to what was being said. They made quick time through the streets back to his apartment building, Sakura obviously not trusting herself to roof jump in her current condition. He led her up to his rooms and let her in, setting her down on the sofa whilst he moved through to prepare some tea.

However, by the time he stepped back through with two cups of tea, Sakura was already asleep on the sofa and he didn't have the heart to wake her. So instead he placed the tea down and stepped through to his room, summoning a clone quietly to change the sheets on his bed whilst he cleaned up the little mess that he had left on the floor when he had left for his mission. Once that was dealt with and the clone finished Naruto headed back into the lounge and gently picked Sakura up bridal style and moved her through to the bedroom.

It was the words she spoke when he shifted her weight slightly to move through the door that sent an icy dagger into his chest. "No…Dad, don't…" He froze, a mixture of feelings bubbling up his chest at the insinuation that it had been her dad that had hit her, primarily disbelief and anger. He liked to think he was not an angry guy and considered that an achievement once he had learned what he contained inside of him, but the roaring swell that rose inside of him now demanded that he hunt the man down and make him pay for hurting his own child, for hurting Sakura-chan.

Obviously he spiked some intent or something that disturbed Sakura's rest, causing her to open her eyes and look up at him blearily. "Oh, sorry Naruto I was just so tired… Naruto?" He realised that his scowl was what had caused her worried calling of his name and therefore did his best to reign in the anger inside of him, moving through and placing her on his bed as he did so. After a few more moments, he managed to calm himself enough to ask his question.

"Sakura-chan… The one that hit you, it was your dad wasn't it?" The look of shock and then shame on her face was all the answer he needed, the anger surging forth once more within him and filling every part of his being. He turned, intending to go and vent his emotions on the one who had done this atrocious thing, when Sakura grabbed his arm firmly with both of her own, her voice piercing the haze that had filled his mind.

"Naruto, please, you promised remember, a Hokage never breaks his promises!" He froze once more, the words like icy water that his head had been dunked into, clearing his thoughts to such clarity that he was surprised by his own thinking. Turning back he placed his free hand on Sakura's and nodded his head solemnly as his anger faded to be replaced by concern and sadness. "That I did, sorry Sakura-chan." He moved and sat next to her on the bed before he asked his next question.

"Honestly though, why did he hit you? I mean you can't have been home more than a couple of hours at best. Did you guys have a big fight or something?" He felt the girl sigh dejectedly next to him and lean against him to rest her head upon his shoulders.

"Yeah, I suppose it could be called that. It all started after you left and Kakashi dismissed us for the day."

*Flashback*

Persona: Sakura Haruno

After hurriedly dumping her equipment at Ino's place, which was much nearer to the Hokage tower than her own home, Sakura hurried towards team sevens training grounds, knowing that is where Sasuke would be. He had been very withdrawn after his defeat to the Hyuuga on Gai's team and she had struggled to talk to him at all considering the exhausting training that Gai had given her to do.

This was the best chance for her to talk to him alone again, she was sure once she did he would cheer up again and act normally, he might even agree to a date in thanks for her kindness. With that rather giddying thought in her mind she landed in the clearing at the edge of the training ground and sure enough Sasuke was there, practicing his Taijutsu against one of the sparring posts in the area.

"Sasuke-kun!" She called out loudly as she walked up to him, only to stop half a dozen yards away when he turned and levelled a hateful glare at her. "What do you want? Can't you see that I am busy doing some actual training?" The harsh tone mixed with the glare cut through her pleased thoughts faster than a kunai and it was all she could do to stammer a response to his questions.

"I just wanted to talk Sasuke-kun; you seemed a bit upset…" He turned and slammed his fist into the training post with such force that the wood cracked a little around the impact point before spinning back to her with a growl.

"What makes you think that I want to talk to you? You are a pathetic excuse for a ninja who seems to think that by being a simpering waste of space that you will somehow attract my attention! Time you could have spent becoming stronger you wasted on your hair or chasing me around. I despise you and all girls that are like you and wish you had never decided to be a ninja. You will just slow the team down and get killed or crippled by the first serious ninja we come across, something I will be glad to occur as it means that I might get someone on the team that is worth my time!"

The words cut through her every emotional defence and ideal that she had had about the Uchiha, wounding her so much that she couldn't even summon up tears, merely nodding her head shakily and turning away from him, staggering towards the entrance to the training ground as she heard the Uchiha snort and return to his training. She made it out of sight and into the next bunch of woods before she collapsed, tears coming in great sobs as her world crashed down around her.

*Flashback end*

Looking up having told the first part of her tale she saw Naruto looking furious once more, shaking slightly in her grip as his hands clenched and unclenched into fists. She sighed, and this was before she got to the worst part, who knew how Naruto would react then. "I don't know how long I stayed there, but by the time I managed to make it back to my parent's place it was half past four, so it must have been quite some time..."

*Flashback*

A long shower had removed the smudged make up and dirt from her breakdown in the woods, but didn't really help with stabilising the whirlwind of emotions that were spreading inside her since the Uchiha had beaten her down. Stepping out of the shower she towelled herself off and moved to get dressed, pausing as a knock echoed on her door. "Sakura-chan? Is that you in there?"

She smiled at the sound of her mother's voice before replying quietly. "Yes kaa-chan, though I am just getting dressed okay?" There was a pause for a moment before her mother spoke once more. "Of course, don't rush dear; tea is on the table for whenever you are ready."

That caused the smile to increase slightly; her mother's food was always delightful and after a week of camp food it would be even better. She headed downstairs a few minutes later and sat at the table with her parents, though her father had a heavy frown on his face. He said nothing however as her mother asked about her mission, which she described as best she could considering what had happened afterwards, determinedly limiting how much she spoke about the Uchiha.

Instead she focussed on what Naruto and Kakashi had done during the travel, which was obviously the wrong thing to do as after the third mention of Naruto's name her father slammed his fist into the table, face red as he spoke angrily. "We will not speak that boys name in this house, I thought I had told you to stay away from him? He is nothing but an unsavoury individual who should never have been allowed to darken our village, and I will not have you sully our good name by idolising his ways!" Sakura was shocked, her father had never really gotten angry with her before now, and he was now all because she was talking about Naruto?

She sat up and shook her head. "I am on his team, so it's hardly like I can stay away from Naruto. Why don't you like him? Naruto's really nice once you…" She was cut off when he slammed his fists into the table again as he stood, shouting loudly at her. "YOU WILL NOT SPEAK HIS NAME IN MY HOUSE!"

Now she was angry herself, her father had never been like this before and definitely not in the threatening manner he was now. Rising to her feet she glared back at him as she rebelliously shouted the name he was denying to the heavens. "NARUTO NARUTO NARU…" The punch caught her off guard and sent her sprawling to the floor, her mother crying her father's name in shock, but his next words were clear enough as he picked her up and dragged her through the house.

"Get out, and don't come back until you are prepared to show me the correct amount of respect that I deserve!" And with that he unceremoniously dropped on the front step before slamming the door behind her, the sounds of her mother's shouting soon joined by his own once more.

*Flashback ends*

Naruto had stopped shaking when she mentioned that it was his name her father didn't want mentioned, and he tried to pull away from her several times once it became clear why she had been hit. She had refused to let him go however until she had finished. "And once I somewhat came to my senses I knew I wasn't going to be welcome in the house again for a while, so instead I tried to find you. But you weren't here so I went to Ichikaru's instead, knowing you would likely end up there at some point."

He was breathing raggedly as he tried to pull away from her once more, before sighing in defeat and instead speaking quietly and worriedly, in a manner that she had never seen Naruto act before. It was almost like he was afraid of her response. "Why did you want to find me? I mean if I am the reason your dad hit you…"

She shrugged and sat up so she was looking him in the eyes once more. "Honestly Naruto, who else could I trust with this? All of my civilian friends wouldn't be very helpful, Ino-buta and I aren't talking and don't even get me started on our sensei. You however have been there for me even when I didn't want you to be, and considering your kindness to Umi and the twins I knew that you wouldn't ignore my worries or dismiss me."

He stiffened at the mention of Umi for a moment before he said in a defeated tone. "So you told me because of me liking you?" She shook her head rapidly, perhaps that was what the others had been saying about her recent actions to Naruto, was she really that shallow to them that they thought so lowly of her?

"Definitely not Naruto, you mean far too much to me to do something like that to you." And she meant it, after the first day on the academy rooftop a week before he had shown a side of him that she had never seen before, though that might have been because of her focus on Sasuke rather than him specifically. He said nothing for a moment before a small but very genuine smile appeared on his face and he raised his arm to hug her to him.

She didn't resist in the slightest and leant back onto his shoulder, enjoying the warmth that practically erupted from his skin even through his t-shirt and jacket layers. They sat there for quite some time, before Naruto pulled away slightly and stood up, smile on his face as he moved across to his cupboard.

Before she could ask what he was doing he opened it up and pulled out a set of pyjamas from inside and threw them to her, chuckling at her confused look. "What? You think I am letting you go back to that idiot tonight? Oh no, you are the latest guest of Hotel Uzumaki, and for this night and this night alone you get to stay free of charge with complimentary breakfast in the morning." She giggled at his over the top sales pitch and grasped the pj's thankfully.

"Thanks for this Naruto, I will move through then and change…" She stopped as he shook his head and gestured around the room. "Nothing but the best for the guests, this is your room for the night." He waved off her protests before grabbing some clothes of his own and headed to the door, obviously to give her some privacy to change.

Calling out to him as he went to swing the door shut, she couldn't help but smile gratefully to him for what he was doing for her. "Naruto, thank you for all of this, I will make it up to you I swear." He shook his head once more and closed the door with a parting comment that Sakura only just managed to catch.

"Just keep smiling Sakura-chan, that is all the payment I will ever need." It was good the door was shut by the time she comprehended what he had said, so he couldn't see the blush that erupted on her face at his simple but heart felt reply. There was definitely more to Naruto than she had imagined, and she was determined to get to know all of him whether he wanted her to or not…

Persona change: Naruto Uzumaki

After summoning a shadow clone to prepare the couch for sleep and then to pretend to be him, he headed out of the apartment and up a floor to Umi's flat, needing to talk with his clone about a number of things least of all what had happened to Sakura. He had promised not to tell anyone else, but the clone was him in a sense and certainly seemed to have a different view on things than he did.

The idea that one's family could get violent against each other in such a fashion was entirely foreign and abhorrent to him. When he was younger he had often wished for parents of his own, a Dad to teach him things about life in a fun and interesting manner whilst his mother would keep him in line and cook the most awesome food he could think of.

The news from Sakura that families weren't as perfect and rosy as he had thought had hit him hard, and it was either visiting Umi-chan to cool down or he would probably end up going to have words with the bastard given how much his anger was bursting in his chest at this point.

Knocking twice he waited for a few moments before Umi opened the door, yawning cutely as she did so and dressed in a set of dark turquoise pyjamas. She seemed to realise his want to talk to her and grabbed his hand to pull him inside before closing the door once more. They sat down in her lounge and stared at each other for a moment before both of them tried speaking at once, both stopping awkwardly before Naruto indicated that the clone should speak first.

"I am sorry Naruto-kun about the kiss, I don't know what came over me, and it seemed like the right thing to do. I won't do it again unless you wish me to." Whilst not the topic he was going to start with it was certainly a good enough place to start, and he shrugged dismissively.

"It is fine Umi-chan, don't you think we are moving a little fast with things however, the plan said…" She shook her head and interrupted him softly but firmly before he could speak too much about the plans timescale.

"The plan stopped being accurate the moment Nami-chan got involved so I improvised. She left us a gift by the way, I have taken the liberty of looking through it and it would be very useful for us." She reached down to the coffee table and picked up a small book that she then handed to him. Looking at the book he read the title 'Basics of sealing scrolls and other useful tips' and realised after a moment how such things could be very useful to them.

"Do you think she wants me to make sealing scrolls to store shadow clones inside, or maybe we skip a step and put them directly onto you…" Umi looked surprised by his leap of logic but after thinking for a moment she nodded assertively.

"That's something I hadn't thought of actually Naruto-kun, good job. The idea of direct applications is something we can think about later however, I think you need to hear what else I managed to get out of Nami when she was hear dropping the book off…"

The look on Umi's face told him this was going to be complicated and take some time, so he settled himself more comfortably into the sofa in preparation for another long and difficult night...

Persona Change: Hinata Hyuuga

She knew that it was wrong spying on people using her dojutsu, but she had been growing suspicious of the new girl in Naruto-kun's life since the Konoha rumour mill had brought news to her that she had kissed the boy before he had left on his mission. As such she had managed to excuse herself from her clan for the evening to come and watch her, to see if the girl was doing this to lead Naruto-kun on or something.

It was therefore surprising when she found Sakura of all people in Naruto's apartment when she arrived, though the girl was obviously distraught over something rather than there for any other reason, she had watched the team mates interact and had purposefully stopped focussing on Sakura's mouth when she had moaned about her father in her sleep.

All Hyuuga learned to lip read before they joined the academy whether they were main or branch house; with such information gathering capacity available to them with the Byakugen there was no way they would not take advantage of it. Therefore she focussed on her original target rather than Sakura, though she looked back at them several times when she saw Naruto's chakra flare in a way she had never seen before, obviously what Sakura was telling him was angering him more than she thought possible.

Umi on the other hand seemed to be doing little out of the ordinary, sat in her room reading an action book. Hinata noted the four other chakra signatures in the girls apartment though and wondered what they were for a moment before she realised their chakra coils were exactly the same as Naruto-kun's.

She smiled slightly as she realised that Naruto-kun had obviously left the clones there in case someone tried to cause Umi trouble, it wasn't the nicest area of Konoha after all for a civilian refugee. Satisfied that she wasn't going to get anything else of interest regarding the girl for the evening, Hinata was about to leave the trio in peace when she saw Naruto leave his apartment room and head down the stairs, Sakura asleep on his bed whilst his clone made up the sofa for him to sleep on.

She was relieved to know that Sakura hadn't tried anything with her team mate, she was going to struggle enough with one rival for Naruto-kun's heart let alone more. To her surprise Naruto knocked on Umi's door, prompting the girl to get out of bed warily and head to the door, though her demeanour changed when she realised who it was, pulling him into her apartment in a very familiar manner that made Hinata's blood boil.

It was the girl's words when they sat down on the sofa that calmed Hinata, replacing it with confusion. What plan could she and Naruto have that required a kiss…? It was her enhanced sight that allowed her to put it all together as she realised why the girl's chakra had seemed so similar to her. Whilst the flow and make up of her network were different enough to cause some doubt it was exactly the same chakra in colour and type as Naruto-kun and his clone's chakra.

Whilst it still didn't make too much sense to her yet, Hinata at least realised that 'Umi' was nothing more than one of Naruto-kun's shadow clones, and they didn't seem to want anyone to know about it for the near future. The possibility of using this information as blackmail surfaced in her mind for a moment before she ruthlessly squashed it, Naruto would probably hate her for doing something so mean and she really didn't want that.

That didn't mean she wouldn't hold it over _**A**_ Naruto's head of course, she thought as her gaze focussed on Umi once more, suddenly a lot more at ease considering her competition had just been greatly reduced, especially if she could procure the shadow clone's help with things.

Most people thought that she didn't try and approach Naruto about her affections towards him because of shyness, and to a certain extent she had to admit to herself that it was true. But the other reason was much simpler and more political in nature.

As heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she was required to maintain a level of class in who she associated with, and the Hyuuga council would throw a fit should she befriend let alone date the young prankster orphan and either demand she stop seeing the boy or she would be disowned as heir to the clan. Being born to the branch caste of the Hyuuga was something she could never risk for her and Naruto-kun's children.

Therefore, until she became head of the clan, or at least her own position as Heir was entirely secure she could not risk openly being seen with Naruto-kun too often lest people guess at what was going on. Once free of the risk of political repercussion though, she wasn't going to waste any time at all. Perhaps with Umi-chans help, she wouldn't even have to wait that long…

**A/N:**** SO MUCH HAPPENING AT ONCE! This chapter covers so many different little bits I wanted to cover, from Team Gai soundly beating Team 7 and causing them to realise that they need to step up to the challenge to Danzo and Sarutobi having a chat. And anyone who says that any of it is unrealistic, keep in mind the chuunin exams, where the only reason that Gai's team didn't own the chuunin exams entirely is that they were arrayed against their worst possible opponents, which include two bjuu containers and future Kage into the bargain!**

**The events with Sakura and her family are my take on the civilian hatred of Naruto, and in my opinion it is fairly soft-core as a family fall out goes, but Naruto certainly won't see it like that as he has nothing else to base it off and is a little obsessed with Sakura… It's also a really easy way for me to get the two of them talking with each other in a way that gets them to move closer in a somewhat believable way.**

**Hinata finding out is something that someone mentioned when I first brought her into the story, and honestly a more manipulative, intelligent but still shy Hinata is something I have always found fascinating and could be quite fun to write. She will still be similar to how she is in Canon, but her motives for acting like that will be rather different to a normal fanfic Hinata as I cannot see her surviving as Heiress this long in such a perilous clan without being more than she appears.**

**Am sure there are a dozen other things that people want to pick holes with, feel free and review me with your points, suggestions, ideas and the bits you liked, it all helps in the long run. **


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